Fighting for a Safe Haven: Mistral SYOC
by BleachCadelina
Summary: SYOC IS CLOSED! A generation of first year Hunters-in-Training, generated by you guys! Taking place after all canon RWBY, this story takes a look at the new groups of young potential Hunters in the impressive Haven Academy of Mistral. We don't get a lot of Mistral-based stories, so why not make it fun with an SYOC? Rated T for Language, Violence, and Possibly sexual themes.
1. Chapter 1

I looked up at the tall, expansive buildings that stood at the end of the grey brick walkway I was moving down, along with thousands of other adolescents. This was a place where prodigies would enter and graduate as heroes. This was Haven Academy, the illustrious Hunter academy of Mistral. Expectations were high, and egos tended to flare higher depending on how one carries themselves.

Looking around, I could see many around me who appeared to fit the description of the aforementioned prodigies. They were clad in impressive armor and showed off intimidating weaponry. Cocky smiles were abound on those who thought they would rule the school on muscles alone, while the smarter ones knew to hide their weapons and let the strangers around them judge each other's looks and capabilities.

My short sword was sheathed and hung off my left side, and my dagger was in its sheath on my right forearm. My light plate armor sat comfortably on top of my hoodie and khakis, and did not restrict my movement as I stretched my arms and rolled my shoulders. Doing a quick pat down of my body to check for my scroll and ammunition cartridge. I had notebooks and folders tucked into a backpack that was hanging by one shoulder strap.

There were so many students, and according to alumni, we were supposed to form groups with the first ones we would make eye contact with during an orientation that varied from year to year. I kept looking around as I approached the doors of Haven, making brief notes on who may be a valuable ally, rival, or enemy based off of their appearance and how they carried themselves to others. Gangs of girls would stay by the open main doors and judge boy and girl alike as they passed the threshold. I saw a large group of girls standing by the, an unknown amount of Faunus teenagers seemingly having an active debate over something. Some of the bigger, well-built boys were a bit more reserved than the others, but still managed to catch ire from other similar and bait a challenge to "prove" themselves before anyone of us even entered Haven for the first time in our collective lives.

After some time, the vast amount of students was finally herded into the main hall of Haven. Scattered conversations were immediately silenced as a middle aged woman stepped onto the stage, and approached a microphone.

"Greetings, young ladies and gentlemen, potential huntsmen and huntswomen," She spoke. Her golden eyes seemed bore holes into a person's soul everywhere she looked; I felt especially cold when I made eye contact with her. She seemed quite young, perhaps in her late twenties. She was also quite attractive; her blouse and long skirt accentuated her body's natural curves. I blinked hard to regain focus on what she was saying. "I am Professor Artrus. You have been all _recommended_ to apply to Haven Academy, not accepted. Before you are actually to be accepted, you must do two things: first, you will all be taking a _second_ test. Unlike the first test you took for Haven, this will not be about mathematics and reading comprehension. It will test your beliefs, morals, and way of thinking as a Hunter."

A murmur of confusion ran through the crowd before Professor Artrus continued, "The second is your physical orientation. Those who pass the initial exam will be given the chance to prove themselves and form the teams that they will be in for their entire Haven careers, and potentially their future. Any questions?"

I looked around, seeing many looks of understanding, but still more looks of confusion. A lone hand rose to ask a question.

"Yes, you?" The professor pointed at the young man. It happened to be one of the muscular students showing off and challenging others earlier that morning.

"So, if we don't pass the first exam, then what?" His hand lowered, and our speaker smirked before responding.

"You will be asked to leave, no exceptions." She said. "If you are not prepared at the very least to think as a professional Hunter or Huntress at this age, then you will struggle and, as history has proved several times, fail."

More murmurs spread through the crowd with that answer. The majority sounded rather fearful of the answer, while some seemed to be unconcerned with this news. I stayed silent, confident that I could pass the first test. The second test, of course, would determine how the next three years of my life here.

"With that," Professor Artrus began her conclusion, "You all have the rest of the afternoon to familiarize yourselves with the campus and your peers, and the exam will take place tonight. Wherever you are, you will receive a message on your scroll as to how to get to the examination area. After that, you will be sleeping in the main hall for the night. Those who passed will go through the orientation in the morning. Good luck to you all."

She walked off of the stage, and the crown dissolved into a mass of worry, uncertainty, and general noise.

With so many different personalities, styles, weapons, and so on, what could an average do but feel a bit stressed as to what would be best for me? I had three years of Haven Academy's trials ahead of me, but with whom will I be experiencing it?

 **A/N: Hello, Reader! Welcome to my first attempt at an SYOC fic! It'll be a lot of work, but it's also going to be a lot of fun! I'll put you all in teams together and experience the shenanigans as First-Year Hunters-in-Training! This story is told after the canon RWBY events, and will not have any real connections with it. Since we don't know much about Mistral yet, all of the geographic stuff will be made from me, along with some key characters. A Main 4 team for this story is already made, so your characters  
Below will be a sort of template for you to fill out for your OC Submission. ****ACCEPTED ONLY THROUGH PM, NOT REVIEWS/COMMENTS** **.  
Below the template will be a slightly filled out one for mine, AKA the one whose POV the story will be mainly in. **

**OC Submission:**

 **A:  
Name:  
Gender:  
Sexuality: (And say if you're ok with me shipping you w/ another OC)  
Hair style, Eyes:  
Physical Appearance: (Body type/build, approx height/weight)  
Personality: 5-10 Adjectives  
Character Placement: Friend, Neutral, Enemy  
(Neutral characters have the chance of their character being another teacher, villain, or one with arc relevance)**

 **B:  
Weapon:  
Armor:  
Usual Clothes:  
Aura Color:  
Semblence: (Nothing too OP)  
Alt Clothes:  
Casual clothes:**

 **C:  
Background: (Detailed, but not too long. Give me something that would want me to pay attention to your character in any story)  
Fears:  
Details:**

 **MY OC SUBMISSION**

 **A:  
Name: Railen Roame  
Gender: Male  
Sexuality: Heterosexual  
Hair style, Eyes: Short messy dark grey hair, blue eyes  
Physical Appearance: Somewhat athletic body type, Around Ren's ht  
Personality: Modest, Determined, Introverted, Quick Witted, Cautious  
Character Placement: The Protag :P**

 **B:  
Weapon: Short Sword + Dagger(?) combination  
Armor: Light Plate armor  
Usual Clothes: Blue hoodie, Black Khakis, Track Sneakers  
Aura Color: White  
Semblence: (?)  
Alt Clothes: (?)  
Casual clothes: (?)**

 **C:  
Background: (?)  
Fears: Spiders  
Details: (?)**

 **Once again, I won't be looking for submissions in the reviews, unless I notify otherwise for some reason. Have fun with it! Once I have enough OCs, I do my best to update the story as soon as I can! Hope to see your submissions soon. Criticism, along with world-building ideas, are welcome in the reviews/comments!**


	2. Chapter 2

It was still rather early in the day when Professor Artrus let us out to wander about the campus. Haven Academy was a large, square shaped facility, which allowed for a large, square park in the middle for students to relax, hang out, or even get lunch from the vendors that would wander through the area with the school's permission.

I watched as some students were already forming lines for one such vendor's food stall, pulling their Lien out and conversing with one another about the food. Others wandered around, admiring the school and the park around them. A few others chose to stay in their personal little corners, making as little contacts as possible; not exactly a beneficial idea, seeing as we were to make teams once we passed the exams. One girl, in a blue hoodie with a pattern of white specks, was especially doing her best not to come into direct contact with anyone. People passed her by without any regards, which seem to make the girl happy. Another student, was attracting stares and looked like he was a little uncomfortable about said attention. He had spikey light grey hair and green eyes, with red metal bracelets on both wrists. We made eye contact for a moment before he turned away and continued to walk through the park. I followed him for a moment, and saw that he had a dog's tail.

 _A faunus?_ I thought. _Interesting, haven't really come into contact with many faunus in back in Sanctum_.

I continued to wander around the square until I found an empty bench. Sitting down and placing my backpack on the ground between my legs, I took out my Scroll and put in my earbuds.

 _~You can take my liiiiiife… I'm not your Sacrifiiice…~_

Just my luck, my favorite song popped up first upon pressing Shuffle. A tap on my shoulder caused me to look up. A somewhat tall girl, taller than me at least, in a white and dove grey dress and holding a large staff was looking back at me (For reference, think of Weiss' clothes, but a dress instead of a skirt). She had straight golden blonde hair that seemed to be moved by a non-existent breeze. Her eyes were a soft blue with tints of white around the edges of her iris. I removed one earbud to hear her out.

"Would you mind if I sat here?" Her voice was soft and kind. Almost motherly, in a way. "I've been wandering around for ages, but the other benches are a bit crowded."

"Sure, I suppose." I scooted over a bit, despite the decent amount of room on the bench. As she sat down, I offered my hand in greeting. "I'm Railen."

"Elysia," She shook my hand with a small smile as she sat down next to me. "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise, Elysia." Her hands were somewhat firm, but soft. "So, what do you uh… do?"

"You mean, how do I fight?" She asked. "And is that how you always start a conversation with new acquaintances?"

"Yes," I replied, referring to her fist question before continuing, "And when we happen to be in an academy for Hunters and Huntresses with vast potential, yes."

"Hmm, I suppose you're correct in that way of thinking." She said, before bringing her staff in front of us. I hadn't noticed before, but her voice had a faint, refined tone to it. "I'm a Dust mage."

"You channel Dust through your staff, then?" I guessed, and her smile confirmed it.

"That's right." She said. "I specialize in Wind Dust, though, seeing as my Semblance is based on Wind."

"Really?" I asked. I had never seen a Wind based Semblance before. "And…?"

"I'll save showing it off for the initiation, however." She said. "It's a touch too dangerous for to show it here. How about you, Railen? How do you fight?"

"Well, I have a short sword and dagger." I displayed my weapons, then changed my grip on my dagger to show what would have been a regular butt of a regular knife, but instead was a barrel, along with a trigger mechanism that appeared with the press of a button. "And the dagger also acts as a pistol for some range coverage."

"That's rather convenient." Elysia commented. "Does it help your Semblance in any way?"

"Not really," I answered. "Not in a way that I've thought of at least."

"And your Semblance?" She asked.

"You didn't show me yours," I remarked.

"For good reason!"

"It's still not fair."

"You two seem like a fun group so far." Another voice popped into the conversation. Elysia and I turned to see the boy from before. His tone was rather flat, but not cold. Just calculating as he looked around at the other students. "Not a lot of people are really talking about their weapons and Semblances. Just you two."

"Is that so?" I asked. Elysia looked equally curious about this statement.

"None of us are a sure shot to attend Haven, remember?" He said. "If anything, we should just enjoy the fact that we've been 'recommended' to come here."

"I suppose," Elysia began. "But, I do believe that I'll pass the test quite easily."

"Same here." I agreed with the very statement. The boy nodded.

"With that confidence, I think you two would definitely pass, then." He said before offering his hand. "I'm Nero. Nero Banecraw."

"Railen Roame."

"Elysia Ceres."

"Nice to meet you two." He said with a small smile as we shook hands. His hands were much smoother than Elysia's, surprisingly. "I hope to see you both in the initiation."

With that, he turned and walked back to the Academy buildings. Upon closer inspection, I saw that his tail was being kept neat by bands every few inches.

"He's a wolf Faunus." I heard Elysia say. I looked at her for an explanation. "Banecraw's were once a very proud family of Wolf Faunus, and they were always recognized by how they kept their tails banded. He may be a valuable asset to a team, wouldn't you think? And how m-"

I didn't think, really. Instead, I used my Semblance. Focusing my Aura to my eyes, one second slowed as the world around me ultimately seemed to freeze and turn into shades of blue and black. Students around me were given blue outlines, while the Haven buildings were outlined in black.

 _I can't tell by his hands' smoothness what his fighting style might be, but his red bracelet must be related somehow. Also, if my team has both myself and Elysia in it, then we cover both range with her Dust, and close combat with myself. I need to find out what he can do._ I relinquished my Aura from my eyes after what felt like a minute in the darkened world, allowing light and colors to return to my sight. Upon which, came the tell-tale flash of my light blue irises, and apparently, Elysia noticed.

"Was that your Semblence?" She asked. I sighed; I was hoping she wasn't actually looking at me when I did it. "Whatever you did with your eyes?"

"Yes." I answered. "Yes it is."

"Are you going to tell how it works?" She asked.

"Only if we manage to be on the same team, sure." I doubted it, but somehow I knew that might happen.

"Do you have a name for it?" Elysia asked. _A name?_ I thought. _No, but why not, it could be fun_.

"I call it my Split-Second Vantage." I said, with a slight air of pride. This elicited a soft giggle from the Dust Mage.

"In that case, mine is Maelstrom." Elysia smiled as she said it. Indeed, it sounded like something too dangerous to demonstrate in the park. Before I could turn the conversation to another subject, everyone in the park received a loud, beeping notification from their Scrolls. A message on the screen read:

 **ALL HAVEN FIRST YEAR ENTRANTS, PLEASE GO TO THE MAIN HALL TO BEGIN EXAMINATIONS.**

"Well, Elysia," I began, as I watched one student hastily take to the skies on a glider, a confident smile on her face as she landed to be first to the academy entrance. "This is it."

"Good luck, Railen," She said as we stood and shook hands. "I'll be rather disappointed if I don't see you at initiation."

"Likewise." I nodded before we began to walk back to the buildings.

This was the first step of many. I could hear many students arguing and boasting, but I quickly ignored them. This wasn't about me, or my strength. This test would test my mind as Hunter. I was ready.

 **A/N: Hey everyone! Hope you enjoyed this little tidbit of a intro chapter to two of my other OCs for the protag-team, Elysia and Nero. Just as well, I put it two OCs sent by you guys that caught my interest, and that I felt needed to be noticed a bit. Leave a review about what you thought.**

 **Also, more details about their Semblances, especially Railen's, will be later in the story, maybe in the Initation Arc?**

 **Once again, Hope you enjoyed the update. I'm doing my best to make sure each chapter is at least 1K words.**

 **See y'all next chapter!**

 **Heart y'all,**

 **BleachCadelina**


	3. Chapter 3 (Revived)

We filed into the Great Hall that we had stood in a mere hour before. It was a now a large auditorium filled with chairs with swinging desktops. The sides of the room had large windows, letting a lot of natural light into the vast room. The front of the room had an elevated stage, and a projection screen was being lowered down. I walked over to an empty seat in the middle of the large room, and put my earbud back in my ears, pressing "Play" on my Scroll. I looked up into the high vaulted ceiling. Apparently, this space was also used as a cafeteria, ballroom, and large combat practice room for class. The third of which I had hoped to see soon.

 _~I am… a point in the sky… A star in a constellation~_ (Ants by Forgive Durden)

I smiled as another favorite song of mine played. I watched as the multitude of student piled into the room. I caught a glimpse of Elysia sitting by the side of the room, taking in the view given through a nearby window. I could see Nero sitting in front; his tail was poking out from the side of his seat. Looking behind me, I scanned the room to see who else wasn't still socializing and were sitting ready for the first part of the initiation exam. My eyes rested on the girl wearing the blue hoodie that I had seen outside. She was sitting in the corner, and appeared to have scooted her seat away from the main group.

Upon shifting my field of view even slightly away, she happened to vanish! I took a double take and focused on her again, leading to us making eye contact. A mixed look of surprise and mild panic sprung up on her face, so I assumed she was purposely doing something to avoid being seen without reason.

"Sorry," I mouthed, raising a hand in apology, which she responded with a shy smile and small nod. At this moment, I felt someone tap on my shoulder. I pulled out my right earphones and turned to meet the person. "Oh, hey Rama."

"It's _Professor_ Apocrypha to you, now." Meet Rama Apocrypha. At this proximity, I felt enveloped by his usual cologne that was cigarette smoke. If I hadn't spent years training with him, I would have been coughing the moment he was three feet from me. His short, spiky hair with two strands falling on the sides of his forehead helped to bring out an intimidating visage to those of weaker minds. His amber eyes flicked to the blue-hoodie girl and then back to me. "You're not even accepted to this place yet and you're flirting with girls. You better get back in focus, Railen. I'm making exactly sure that you get no favoritism from me."

"I'm not expecting any, Rama." I smiled as his scowl deepened at the use of his first name. "I know you'd be disappointed if I don't work my ass off here."

"I'd be damn disappointed if you didn't get past this exam, boy." He retorted. "Either way, I'll be doing my best to make your life straight hell."

"Please Professor Apocrypha," A new, unfamiliar voice spoke up now. I turned slightly and saw an average-height man with curly black hair and pale gold eyes. "I'd prefer it if you'd stop with the hostilities towards the students, you're starting to scare the others.

Looking around, I couldn't tell if the surrounding students were indeed startled by Rama's actions towards me. Turning back to this man, I could just make out furry ears in the mess of black hair. _A Faunus?_ I thought. _Could he be able to sense emotions around him? Who is this man?_

"My apologies, Headmaster Watson," Rama said, before looking back at me. "I was just letting Railen know that I wouldn't be going easy on him despite our connection."

 _Headmaster?_ I was inwardly taken aback. It was a very rare occasion for a Faunus to be in such a high position of power. _He must be very good at what he does as a Hunter_. I probably should have done a bit more research about the staff at this place aside from personally knowing only one of them.

"Of course not," Headmaster Ronan said with a kind smile. "But you shouldn't be going easy on any student in general, Rama. You're to be teacher the best of the best here. Now please, let's join Professor Artrus at the stage to start this exam."

I watched Rama walk back to the stage, hands in his pockets, casting his gaze toward other students in their seats. I didn't notice Headmaster Ronan was still standing by me until the Faunus man spoke up.

"I've heard of you, Mr. Roame. Both from Sanctum and… other sources." He said, the second sentence drawing some caution my way. "I wish you good luck in your career here."

With that, he went to the two Professors on the stage. The projection screen now displayed the common examination time details: Time Left, Time Now. Apparently, we had about 90 minutes to get through the exam. Upperclassmen were going around the room, giving pens to those who needed. The last one, a rather young looking girl, looked around with a handful of pens in hand. After seeing that no one else needed them, she approached the professors and nodded.

"Thank you, Kestrel." Professor Artrus nodded in thanks. She then held up a stack of papers with very blurry looking text. "Now, you will receive your exams, and you have the rest of the allotted time to finish it."

The papers were promptly passed throughout the students, and much to our confusion, the words that were supposedly the questions were blurred out like newspaper print in the rain.

"The first part of your initiation," Artrus started, ignoring any questions about the exam. "NOW!"

The moment I decided to focus on the first question, it faded into focus.

 **What is the most important about being a Hunter?**

 _This is a kind of a loaded question_. I thought. My answer ended up being, "In the end, we are the wall between the vulnerable innocents and the Grimm and evil that threaten to swarm into our world. It is our duty, no matter our upbringing, to fight for those who cannot."

While I didn't personally like that answer, it was the best way for me to word my own personal opinion that we were the only ones able and worth training to try to fight for those who just can't. I turned my focus to the next question, which read:

 **How would you describe your fighting ability in one or two sentences?**

I sighed. This was a rather simple sounding question. Looking around, I could see people shaking their heads and tapping their pens against the table in thorough contemplation. I looked up to the stage and saw Rama gazing around the crowd. Headmaster Watson caught my eye and whispered something into my acquaintance's ear. At this, I remembered something my acquaintance had told me a long time ago, when we started training together. "Brute strength can only get you through so many doors; Strategy will be my skeleton key." Satisfied with that line, I decided to write that down as my answer. The third answer was another rather simple question upon fading from blurriness:

 **What are thoughts when encountering an enemy?**

Well, it was a simple one for me. My background taught me well enough about people before I took any formal training in Sanctum. I answered, "Never underestimate your enemy, or assume you have the upper hand. Rather, I assume that I am the one at a disadvantage and immediately try my best to identify points to escape if the worst is to happen. I should not be the priority if I am protecting people from this person. Simply strong-arming my way out of this will not guarantee a victory, and may lead to some fatal consequences."

The last question was what really stopped me after turning the page. It was the shortest question of them all, but was an even more of a loaded question than the first one. It was also not blurred out originally, so I assumed that it was one for all of us to answer.

 **What is Courage?**

What did this question want from me? An example or an actual definition? I saw many students already rising from their seats to submit their papers, Elysia being one of them. I could just make out a full essay on the back of her paper to answer this question. I thought hard on how I should answer, nearly to the verge of panicking. Why was this question so much harder to answer than the others? I watched as more and more students approached the stage to hand in their papers. Even the super shy blue hoodie girl was finished before me! Looking down at my paper once more, I took a breath and wrote out the only thing on my mind. It was risky, but I didn't know any other way that might stand out. With that done, I got up, briskly walked up to the student named Kestrel, who accepted my paper with a smile. I walked out of the Great Hall to explore the large square courtyard once more. We would be called back in to sleep for the night, but we would not know our fates until the morning.

 **Later that night, in the Headmaster's Office…**

Ronan Watson sighed as he put yet another declined student's paper into the corresponding pile. He looked to his Scroll; it was now 12:45 in the morning. He had been up working on sorting these students out for a while. Watson had been expecting this many rejection; so many students stated that they were Hunters for the fame, fortune, or fun. While all that was great, Haven and Remnant were in need of serious Hunters that understood why they were going to be sent around the world to risk their lives for the people. The last question about courage was also very important. People like Argos Hadrix and Calliope Brekker gave great answers, as well as students like Elysia Ceres, and Dartmouth Natterjack.

Now, the teacher had picked up Railen Roame's paper. A capable young man, with a background that many officials would question harshly. However, both Rama and Watson believed the boy had potential here. The first three questions were answered rather smartly. The Headmaster smirked at Rama Apocrypha's own motto being used as Roame's answer to his fighting ability question. What really made the Haven Headmaster smile was the young man's response to the courage question.

"Well young Mr. Roame," Watson spoke softly as he stamped an "ACCEPTED" on the soon-to-be-student's paper. "Hopefully we see this kind of attitude during the initiation mission."

It would be a rather difficult one, indeed, as well as deadly. Luckily they would have enough staff on standby to make sure everything turned out well. In the end, Railen, Elysia, Nero, and everyone else would have to put themselves to the test tomorrow. Watson put the Railen's paper down in the much smaller pile of accepted students. On top was his answer to the question about what he thought courage was.

"This."

 **Author's Note:**

 **HEYO. BleachCadelina with the revived Chapter 3 to the best of my memory! Chapter 5 is a about 3/7 of the way finished, and the initiation mission is only just about to get spicy.**

 **A minor setback announcement now:**

 **Finals are coming up soon, meaning that Chapters 5 and 6 are most likely to come up much later this month and early June. Also, my girlfriend has been in the hospital for a week now, and it has been confirmed to have a cyst in her brain. However, since it is still small, she's expected to be discharged soon and able to go home. I've been staying with her to make sure she stays healthy, which is why Chapter 3 hasn't come out earlier.**

 **Thanks for hanging through the delays, and I hope you enjoyed the revival of this chapter!**


	4. Chapter 4

"…" I glowered crankily in the direction of some rustling bushes over to my right. After watching a squirrel scamper out of them and onto a nearby tree, I continued my irritated walk through this godforsaken forest.

 _How did you get there?_ You may ask. _Why is Railen so cranky?_ Oh. Ohohohooo. Railen is very cranky. Let's go back to about two hours ago.

 **Two hours ago… In Haven's Great Hall**

I found myself exchanging some small talk with Elysia and Nero while we waited for the Great Hall to finish changing. As it so happens, this entire room was powered by Dust, allowing the professors to change it into whatever room is necessary for any occasion. As the clock finally ticked to 8:00 on my Scroll, I sighed and watched the last of the dining tables set up for an early breakfast. When I woke up, I immediately noticed the drastic change in the amount of students in the room. From the hundreds applying yesterday, there were about twenty or thirty of us remaining; that's a rather disturbing thought, if you think about it.

We were then told to get dressed for our initiation mission before breakfast. As I strapped on my light plates over my chest, shins, thighs, and arms, I thought of the number of students again. _You'd think they'd be glad to have such a large number of students as potential Hunters and Huntresses_. I strapped my dagger and its sheath to my hip, and checked that my short sword was secure in its sheath, going diagonally down my back. _I suppose they're looking for the best of the best_. I looked around at the other students, who were all fully dressed out in their combat attire. As a group, we made our way back to the Great Hall.

"Alright everyone!" Kestrel, one of the upperclass students from yesterday's exam, called for attention once some people in white clothing laid out a breakfast banquet for us. "Please, don't eat too much. We don't want anyone puking out a lung during initiation."

With a smile, she allowed us to collect our food and sit where we wished. Elysia, Nero, and I, having already been rather acquainted with each other, shared a table. It was small talk and small smiles once again throughout the whole room. As we all took our first few bites into the delicious looking pancakes, waffles, muffins, and bacon, the soon-to-be Haven freshmen fell unconscious.

Somewhere, Headmaster Watson was giggling, as he watched one student's face fall into some mashed potatoes.

 **Back to present time…**

"AAAAARGH!" I exerted some extra effort into cutting down some rather tough vines in my way. I was working out some frustration, sweat rolling down my forehead, and chest tightening from asthmatic overexertion. After sufficiently cutting my way into a clearing, I looked down again at my Scroll.

OBJECTIVES

1\. Encounter and Find your partner.  
You and the first person you make eye contact with will be one-half of a team of 4; This is your team for all of your Haven career  
2\. Search and Return Keys to the beacon.  
There is a small temple in this forest. Take ONE of the relics and return it to the location of the green beacon.

Sure enough, one could see a green beacon from any open space in the forest. It was far off to my left, and I was actually taking the first objective to heart. Obviously, it would be hard for someone to sift through Grimm-infested forest on their own; team work makes the dream work, guys! Speaking of Grimm…

 **Grrr…** A Beowolf emerged from the foliage to my right, and I turned to face it. Its bright red eyes glowed with malice and hunger. Its long claws glistened in the sunlight. I was glad to be in a clearing; much more open space meant more maneuverability. It also meant that— **Grrraaowl…** _Fuck_. I turned to see another Beowolf approaching from my left side. It looked at the first Beowolf, seemed to nod in understanding (to my surprise), and lowered itself, a charging stance. I turned once more, so that they were on either side of me.

"Right…" I said, finally catching my breath as I stood my ground. I gripped my dagger with the blade pointing along my arm. "This is _exactly_ what I wanted. Totally. Great."

The second Beowolf charged at me from his spot on my left with its arms extended, and the one facing me lunged with an arm primed for a rather harsh-looking slash at my head. Instinct took over, and my aura pooled into my eyes as I activated my Semblance. The world turned to shades of blue and black, and time seemingly froze. Immobilized,I took stock of the situation.

 _Obviously, moving left and right won't help very much._ My eyes moved to look over at the Beowolves. I had thirty seconds to think of my next move. _If I move back or forward, I catch either the start or the end of that Beowolf's swing. Lefty here also might catch me if try to attack Righty from below its leap. So, there's really only one option here._ With an idea in mind, I took a breath, released my Aura, and jumped—

Over Lefty, and time slowed down in my head; Thank Dust he took a low lunge. At the push of a button, my dagger's butt end instantly opened to resemble a pistol barrel. With a quick press of the same button, a .50 caliber round was blasted into the top of its skull. I landed with a side roll and reoriented myself just in time to see Righty bounding over the downed Lefty, claws extended once more. This time I took the offensive: I lunged forward, and my sword cut across its chest, causing a red gash to appear and forcing the beast to stumble back. I followed that up with one, two, three more strikes counted in my head, then rolled around to his side to avoid another, much slower swipe. It was easy work past that, a few more slashes, rolls, and a final stab into its throat: a vital point for most Grimm.

"Well," I wiped my forehead as I watched the Grimm dissipate into the air. "That was almost a close call." Before I could take a step however, another growl cut the silence behind me. _Too_ close behind me, to be exact. I could feel the ground under me rumbling.

 **Graaaao—aa!** It's charging roar was cut off by something.

I turned just in time to see two large walls of earth pull away from each, and the remains of the Beowolf drifted into the wind. I hadn't even pulled my dagger back out yet to try to defend myself. The walls sunk back into the ground, and I met my savior. He was much taller than me, and had broad shoulders. His dirt-brown hair was messy, and he donned a blue headband. He wore hardened leather armor over simple green clothes.

"Thank you," I said, approaching him as he wiped dirt off of his hands. Judging by the two holes in the ground, he had just stuck them in there to create those earthen walls. I offered my hand to shake after he was done. "I really owe you that one. What's your name?"

"…" He said nothing as stared at my hand before shaking it, and smiled at me. He then pulled out his Scroll, and pressed a button. Immediately, my Scroll vibrated and I looked at the screen.

PARTNERS:

RAILEN ROAME & ARGOS HADRIX

"Argos, then?" I asked, and he smiled again. "Not much of a talker, huh?"

I watched as he typed into his scroll with practiced quickness. I looked down at my Scroll.

Been mute since birth. You're Sanctum's Railen Roame?

I looked up at him after reading it softly aloud. _H-he knows me?_ I thought. I nodded, deflated by the first statement he made. Mute since birth? That's a tactician's personal worst nightmare! Behind blindness, of course.

Good to know I at least have a chance at survival now, with a former tourney champ for a partner.

"Right." Oh. Right. That's why. "I suppose that's correct."

And I'm really sorry about—

"Anyway…" I forced my eyes way from the rest of that sentence. "I suppose we're partners then?" A nod, then a gesture to follow him.

After a long while of silence and trudging through the forest, I concluded that Argos wasn't fully mute; He would grunt in exertion and sigh from time to time, and I deduced that he had a rather ragged voice.

"So, Argos" I begin, ending the period of silence. "What's your Semblance?"

Ground-Power. I can control whatever solid ground is under my feet, as well as form temporary structures out of it.

"Interesting." I noted. _That explains the walls from earlier,_ I gathered. An elemental Semblance is rather rare in Mistral. I was about to ask how he learned to use it until we heard more rusting in the bushes a few feet away. I drew my sword, and I saw Argos press his fists against the ground, an orange Aura surrounding them. Another male duo emerged from the bushes, but no one that I recognized.

One was a few inches shorter than me, and had hair colors ranging from black, red, orange, and yellow. His eyes were a calculating dark grey. In his hand was a Gladius sword similar to my own's design, with a rather complicated looking handle that comprised of a large cylinder barrel. A bladed weapon that also happened to be a gun, not uncommon, but a favorite and effective combination for many Hunters.

His partner was a Faunus, a bit taller than the first young man. His fox ears were barely noticeable through his black and white spiky hair. His eyes shone red with excitement and curiosity. He wielded large clawed gauntlets that appeared to jut out from a wristband on both of his arms. A barrel-like hole by his knuckles told that he could use projectiles if needed.

"Hold your arms!" The Fox Faunus spoke first, left hand on his right arm, and a smile on his face. "Friendlies, here."

"Of course." I lowered my sword. I made to shake their hands, and Argos followed. "Who might you be?"

"Taz. Taz Kitsune." _Fitting_ , I commented inwardly. He gestured to the multicolor-haired boy next to him. "This is my partner and long-time friend, Noir Ignatius."

"I _can_ speak for myself, Taz." The shorter of the duo said. He pulled down on his black and red hoodie, realigning the light pieces of armor on his torso. "But yes, that's me."

"Railen Roame." I reciprocated before gesturing to my partner. "And this is Argos Hadrix."

"What's up big guy?" Taz said with a smile and a wink. "Fox got your tongue?"

The comment caused Argos to take a step back for a moment, before realizing the speaker was speaking in jest.

"He's mute." I glanced over while I explained, hoping the use of the word _mute_ was okay with him. "But he's pretty damn fearsome."

"Silent yet deadly." The duo in front of us said, simultaneously. Light laughter ensued, followed by a quick fistbump between the two friends.

"You two seem really close." I commented.

"Mhmm." Noir was suddenly rather impatient when he replied, "That's what years of dealing with this guy gets you. Now while this was all nice, do you have any idea where that temple might be?"

"We were looking for it ourselves." I said. Looking at Argos, who shrugged. "No clue so far. You guys?"

"We passed another two on our way here." Taz answered. "They were headed back to the beacon already with a key. Said it was due north."

How do we know which was is north from here?

After reading Argos's question out loud, all I got in response was a sly smirk from Noir; he apparently just hatched an idea.

"Hey, Taz. What did you Scroll say about the weather and wind direction today?"

"Uh…" Taz sounded confused as I was when asked this question. Looking to Argos, apparently he didn't know either. "I think, mostly sunny, and slight breezes going West."

"Good." With that, his Aura flared a bright red-orange all over his body, and a great cloud of smoke enveloped the area within moments. Completely obscuring all of us from view.

"Noir!" I called out into the greyness. "Is this you?"

"Yup!" I heard Taz respond instead. "It's his Semblance!"

Within a few minutes, the smoke began to dissipate, and Noir pointed to the sky. According to him, the wind was much stronger among the treetops, and would tell us where West was. Sure enough, the wind blew the smoke to our right.

"You could have done that," Taz took a moment to glare at his partner. "We've been wandering aimlessly for half an hour!"

" _You_ could have stopped rambling on and on about the breakfast muffins' _betrayal_ this morning." Noir countered.

"Good point." The Fox Faunus said, before turning to me and Hadrix. "Well, let's get going."

I looked to my tall partner, who shrugged as if to say, _I don't' have any better ideas_. I nodded in agreement before following Noir northward, with Taz behind him saying that the muffins' betrayal was still unforgivable.

 **(Author's Note): HEYO, BLEACHCADELINA HERE WITH A LONG DESERVED UPDATE FOR THE READERS!**

 **The new laptop is going well, and I'm pretty much set up with all the OC info again. Thanks again to everyone who resubmitted! Writing schedule, of course, will still be slow because of school, but I shall be dutifully working on it. Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoy it and what else I have in store!**

 **Review Responses:  
(From next update on, I will only do responses for the previous chapter)**

 **VorticalFiveStudios: Thanks! I need much more improvement, in my opinion, but that comment still means a lot to me.**

 **Hiero II: I follow that idea personally IRL.**

 **Zabaniyz: Yeah, sorry. I wish I had let you know that I did that. Also, I hope you don't mind me changing his name from Rama to Roma. And yeah, I wanted to show the exam, since it's somewhat of an original idea.**

 **kaixnx360: Mhmm, a rather diverse bunch, and we've only scratched the surface! I plan on doing Railen's POV for the main story; if I start talking about something that doesn't involve the main protagonist and his team, I will use 3rd Person.**

 **xxxcidexxx: I really felt the Kestrel would be great as an upperclassman. I have plans for her. Just you wait. For a long while. Because that part of the plot doesn't happen for a loooong time. So stay tuned!**

 **Maebird: *finger guns***

 **Wallflowerpower: Hope your eyes are better now! And you'll see more characters soon.**

 **That's it for now, see y'all next udpate!**

 **Heart You!**


	5. Chapter 5

"You alright there, Argos?" I looked back to my tall partner; we've been walking presumably northward for quite a while. I received a thumbs up in response while he scanned our surroundings. We had taken to a formation while trudged forward: Noir in front, Taz and me in the middle, and Argos in the rear. Nothing popped yet, which was a good for us. Up ahead, _fucking finally_ , was a much larger clearing than the one I had met Argos in. Upon entering it, we saw that it was of such great expanse, that it could be easily spotted from a nearby tall cliff.

"Here were are!" Noir announced, pointing ahead before mumbling, "Fucking told you, Taz."

"Hey man," Taz held his hands up with a smile, "Don't get salty at me. Not all weather predictions are right y'know." That was a surprisingly good point coming from the guy who had been rambling about random subjects while we walked.

"I have every right to be salty." Noir grumbled. "Anyway, there's the temple! Let's get going!"

The temple mentioned was nothing special, really. It had a rectangular base and held up a domed roof with a circle of Doric columns, decorated with vines and cracks that grew over the ages. The bookworm in me would have stopped for a while, if we didn't have such an important mission. We had finally reached destination one, but managed to get ahead to hold a hand out at the entrance.

"Wait a sec," I said. Looking into the space within the columns. Sitting on stone pedestals were… keys. Actual keys. Yet, I didn't trust the space. Concentrating to my eyes, I activated my semblance for the second time today. Time slowed rapidly, and my eyes wandered the small space containing the second step in our objective.

 _No obvious slots for projectiles or traps in the pillars_. I checked off in a mental list. _No cracks in the ceiling, no concern for falling on us_. Check. _Ground would have collapsed already under the pedestals_. Check.

"It's clear." I spoke after I deactivated my semblance.

"Does your semblance involve checking traps or whatever?" Taz queried.

"Kinda. No. Not really." I answered simply and advanced, with the others behind me. After quick observations, I noticed there were supposedly two keys of a single color, a way for us to unify team members, I guessed. Two keys had already been taken, one blue and the other yellow were left without a partner.

Will we be taking a key with a team already in motion?

I read the message from Argos and shrugged. Any team would be the same as another to join, the chemistry would need to be built from the ground up anyway. In the end, I chose a red key, and Taz and Noir decided on the lonely blue key.

"Back to the beacon, I suppose?" I asked. The green beacon was still very visible from where we stood, conveniently. I looked ahead of us, seeing Taz and Noir already starting to jog back to the green light's source. Argos nodded, and we walked out of the temple.

A few other students could be seen making their way in our direction now, a few familiar faces, and the others were either too far away to recognize among those in the Great Hall with us earlier. Not wanting to let this place get too crowded so soon, I decided it was time to rush our way toward the beacon.

You sure? You don't want to team up with anyone else to get there?

I read that and shook my head. There was really no point; we'd be put into teams eventually anyway. Argos nodded in understanding and we made our way out of the small temple and towards the green beacon.

 **About twenty minutes later…**

The trek back was uneventful. We ignored any growling from the surroundings. Our priority was getting to the beacon as soon as possible. There would be the occasional pop-up Grimm that we'd just dodge and roll past and continue running to the beacon. It had been quite the run, but we finally made it to another large clearing, with structures surrounding the source of the green beacon. Each structure was a small metal tube in a color matching those of the keys. I could barely make out Taz and Noir sprinting their way to the blue hut and entered it, and gaped as the blue tube descended slowly into the ground.

"What." A flat question spilled from my mouth after the spectacle. After approaching the group of the structures, we could see that some others had already submerged into the earth. "Where in Remnant does this lead?"

I was answered with a shrug from Argos, before he started walking over to the red structure. Closer inspection revealed a keyhole in which our red key fit perfectly, to our elation. Upon entering it, we saw there was actually much bigger on the inside ( **BC:** Yes, that's a reference, and I'm not sorry for it.). Curved white walls surrounded us. There was a chair, which I sat in because my chest was fit to burst after running for nearly half an hour. Then, a ding from my Scroll.

Asthma? A former Sanctum tournament champion has asthma?

"Hey man," I slowed my breathing down, the burning in my chest subsiding a little. "I'm only human. With mystical powers. I'm not a machine. Even then, machines break down."

Argos nodded. _Note to self,_ I thought. _Rama's ramblings actually make me sound wise_. Indeed, they did; they helped add more speaking options to my current vernacular.

So, I suppose we wait for the other half of our team?

"Yeah," I answered, now fully recovered. _I mean, Taz and Noir took the remaining blue key, so the rest of their team must have been there and allowed their tube to descend_. "Shouldn't be too long now, there were plenty of people heading for the temple."

Turns out I was correct. Within minutes, two very familiar faces barged into the tube with weapons at the ready, as if they expected some sort of miniature Grimm was on the inside. Elysia and Nero looked at me and Argos, weapons drawn. Elysia loosened her grip on her staff, while Nero still kept his hands covered in a pair of dark red, intimidating metallic gloves whose fingers extended into large claws. The gloves also extended into forearm greaves.

"Teammates?" Elysia asked, with a kind smile as she lifted up a red key. Nero simply looked me over with eyes a little colder than when we first met, sighed and crossed his arms. Ignoring the Faunus's attitude, I raised our own red key and confirmed her guess.

"Teammates." I looked at our group and could already feel a sort of tension building, mainly around Nero towards me. However, before I could make any attempt at easing said tension, the tube shifted; we were descending towards whatever else this exam had in store for us. It felt like a normal elevator, except with a much more impending doom sort of feeling added to it. The tube also made movements to the left and right, unorthodox directions for conventional elevators. After a few more moments, our tubes' movement stopped and the door we entered through opened to reveal what could basically be described as a Hellscape.

Lava poured from crevices around us, heating up the room quickly. A large lake of lava sat in the middle of the room, allowing a respectable amount of land around it. Stepping out and looking around, we turned and saw that the elevator let us out from a wall of black stone the extended its theme into the ground beneath us. To our left was another team of four, with Taz and Noir being easily recognizable and urging their group to meet up with ours. To our right, was another group that I supposed wanted the same. The large lava pool ( **BC:** Lava pool~, it's a pool of lava~) bubbled menacingly. I took that into account immediately. Taz and Noir's team made it to us first, comprising of two boys and two girls. One of which I identified immediately.

"Hey," I called out to the girl I met eyes with during the written exam. I immediately noticed that we were the same height. In her hands was a two-sided sword with its metals painted indigo and black. "I remember you from the exam."

"And I, you." She said. She looked much different with her armor on than her blue hoodie. Her hair was tied in a messy French braid, and her skinny jeans really helped to accentuate the athletic muscles underneath. She was also rather well-endowed for a 17-year old, so I made a personal note to do my best _not_ to stare. "Not many people think to focus on me again after I'm out of their sight."

"Understandable, I guess." I held out my hand to shake. "Railen Roame." Her body seemed to tighten up at my hand's advance in her direction. She sighed, but made no attempt to reciprocate.

"C-Calliope Brekker." She answered before taking a deep breath, and the rest of her team gave her some space. "Sorry. I'm not really one for making physical contact."

"Oh, sorry then." I offered sincerely. As she gathered her nerves, her teammates stepped up to introduce themselves.

The team's other girl had sunset orange hair who stood a clear foot taller than me. I felt absolutely miniscule next to her. Her pale complexion and freckles simply radiated openness, but her sharp eyes and defined jaw were definitely intimidating. She sheathed her longsword and put her worn kite shield down in order to give me quite a bone-crushing handshake. If it weren't for Aura, I think I would have needed professional medical assistance.

"Anora Orabelle," She greeted. I smiled back, trying not to reveal how painful her grip was. Her tone was of one who had a very disciplined upbringing. If her chest plate, accompanied with white tunic and sash, were any indication, she had trained hard to able to wield her weaponry. "Nice to meet you, Railen. If I may ask something that may be a bit personal?"

"Sure, shoot." I responded.

"Didn't you use a shield in the Sanctum tournaments?" She dropped quite a bomb of a question on me, one I'd rather not answer at the moment. She was right, and I definitely was still holding my short sword and dagger-gun.

"Um," I started, thinking of a way to diffuse this little issue. "Time and place, Anora. I'll have to answer that another time."

"Alright." She responded simply. Thank goodness she let that go. This definitely wasn't the time nor place to talk about that. Taz and Noir introduced themselves to Nero and Elysia. Taz had apparently had his flirty approaches shot down by Elysia, his pout and Noir's mirth were signs of it, along with a smirk from the staff wielding girl. With these two group meeting up, the third made themselves known, approaching with smiles and weapons still drawn. Also split 50/50, one of the girls approached me while the rest of her team dispersed to meet the rest of the group.

"Heya!" She stood a few inches taller than me, but not as much as Anora did. Her long, dark pink hair was kept in a high ponytail. Her light blue eyes seemed to shine with friendliness. She extended a hand. "I'm Cherry Maraschino. You?"

"Railen Roame." I saw that her weapon were large red tonfa and could easily see triggers on both batons that indicated these were also guns. Her clothes also matched her name, which really seemed to tickle my interest. "Rather appropriate name, Cherry?"

"Ya," She shrugged, still smiling. "My brother always said my hair reminded him of cherries. Might as well go with it."

"You're rather… smiley." I commented.

"Well, it's important for someone to stay positive when times get dire."

"That…" I take that in for a moment before finishing my sentence. "sounds like a good way to see things"

"Glad you think so." Cherry's smile was quite vibrant. Before I could manage another word out, the ground trembled around us. The very ground underneath us was rumbling, and seemed to get strong as one got closer to the large lava pool

"Jack! Cress! Acacio!" Cherry called for her teammates. "By me!" At this, they gathered close in a diamond-shaped formation. I looked to my left to see Anora standing ahead of Taz and Noir, with Calliope holding her sword tightly. Anora was keeping her kite shield held up high. Nero stepped up beside me looking at me with something along the lines of skepticism and boredom. I looked behind me to see Elysia and Argos nodding at me. Then, the lava pool pretty much _exploded_. Lava shot straight up then right back down, though some splattered against the edge of the pool. Anora and Cherry had to take a few steps back to avoid it.

" ** _WWWRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAARGGGH!_** " A screeching roar echoed through the cavern; the resident of the lava pool had made itself known to some annoyances in its home.

"Well…" I looked up at the Grimm monstrosity in front of us. Its wings were tattered, a telltale sign of its species. Its face wide, with hatred-filled red eyes under a white Grimm skull mask that contrasted against its completely black body. Its body was more than five stories tall, and it appeared to be standing up straight in the lava pool. It then extended its coal-black arms and presented its sharp claws. "Fuck."

We were fighting a Raptor Grimm.

( **Author's Note: Heyo, Bleach Cadelina here! If you haven't noticed, there may be more little quips by me midstory in parenthesis with the initials "BC". Also, finals have started, so I wanted to get something out before I get totally swamped. Now, for some Review responses.**

 **First of all, I want to thank everyone for being so patient while I fix the story after the whole broken computer debacle. Go back and read the revived 3rd chapter if you haven't already yet!**

 **Hiero II: Yeah, I know, they seem kinda short, but I'm trying to make sure that each chapter is at least 1,500 words. And don't worry, these characters will become much more fleshed out once the story progresses into school time.**

 **xxxcidexxx: I try my best! Hate to leave the readers waiting so long no matter what.**

 **ultima-owner: Yes, it is quite the useful Semblance**

 **Taz-the-monster: Thanks!**

 **Inkly: Yeah, I was thinking of a way to have a unique kind of exam.**

 **Once again, thanks so much for reading, and I hope you enjoy it!**

 **Next most likely update: Early/Mid June)**


	6. Chapter 6

"We need to keep it occupied until we have a plan!" Noir yelled over another screeching roar from our impending doom. "Any ideas anyone?"

I looked around at the room, and over to Cherry's team. They kept in position, but I could tell they were ready to scatter at a moment's notice; not a good strategy against a Raptor Grimm.

However, there was one thing very different from the Raptor Grimm depicted in TV documentaries and story books I've seen that stood out very clearly: a bright green gem in its forehead, in the high middle of its telltale white mask. It was the same shade of the green beacon that we were guided to. Not truly paying attention to the coincidence, I pushed that detail aside to focus on the matter at hand.

"I think we have a target, thought." Nero spoke up this time, stepping up beside me.

"Just as well, I was planning to come up with something." I said, working on focusing my Aura. Stress can either be a positive thing for Semblances or negative. It's a catalyst or a force that wastes your energy. We needed to take this Grimm out before it leapt out of the lava pool. That's when things get fatal.

"If you could distract it long enough for it to keep its arms busy and away from its face long enough for me to bound up to it, then sure" He said plainly as he flexed his red claw hands.

"You're saying you're going to get it done on your own?" I asked, worried if this kid had a death wish. "No way, Nero. We need to think this through!"

"Try and stop me then!" With that, he took off, sprinting at top speed to a resting arm. Seeing an approaching threat, the Raptor Grimm spat its trademark firey spit ball his way. Except, it arced over the renegade Faunus and towards the rest of the group.

"Scatter!" I heard Elysia shout, while I merely backpedaled a few steps, instinctively raising my left arm. At this, I heard her yell once more. "Railen!"

I blinked, and finally realized what was happening. Fortunately for me, the ground by my front foot rumbled and quickly rose as a wall to meet the flaming projectile. I looked back to my own partner, Argos, who had his fists in the dark ground and an irritated look on his face.

"I owe you twice now, Argos." I admitted. "Thanks… and sorry."

He nodded before smirking. I turned forward again as the impromptu stone wall fell back into the floor, and activated my Semblance.

 _Nero's making himself a priority target for the Raptor by approaching him so quickly._ I remarked about the most pressing issue I saw in the time-frozen region around me. _But he's right on that one point, we need to keep its hands busy and hit that green gem!_ Looking around, I was very glad to see that there were two other teams here. _I don't know how Cherry's team can manage it, but I think Taz and Noir can do their part for this_. With that decision done, I took a deep breath and retracted my activated Aura away from my eyes.

"Taz! Cherry!" I called to the two most convenient names from both teams. They both looked to me for directions. "Get to either side of the Raptor! Keep its arms busy while I deal with Nero!"

Looking at the mention Grimm beast, I saw that Nero was already doing his best to dodge the heavy hands' falling and giant claws tearing the space around him. The two teams were running, but the room was too large for them to reach for sufficient ability to distract the Raptor. Nero wouldn't last too long if he kept dodging, but I doubted I could get there in time by running. I had an idea, though.

"Elysia," I caught her attention quickly. "Do you think you can launch me with your Wind Dust towards Nero's position?"

"Can I?" She sounded rather offended at my question, and a gust began to swirl around her. "Just let me know when you need the boost."

"Alright, and Argos," I called for my partner. "Try to keep the other teams' blind spots get protected." He nodded in response. _Note to self_ , I remarked. _Ask Headmaster for an easier way to communicate with Argos_.

 ** _Grrah!_** A loud, short growl brought my eyes back to the large Raptor Grimm. It's left hand was being laid siege to by Taz and Noir's team. I watched as the four members of that team coordinate by taking turns to draw the concentration of the limb. Cherry's team did a similar thing to distract its right side. However, the Raptor's head was trained on the rapidly approaching Nero.

"Ready when you are!" Elysia shouted, her staff pointing in my direction. I watched as our large opponent's mouth began to swell, a sure sign that— _Damn it, you idiot!_ I cursed Nero's stupid strategy as the Wolf faunus leaped up and towards the dark beast's face, presumably aiming for the jewel in its forehead.

" **Now, Elysia!** " I yelled, and after a split second I was suddenly propelled at high speeds towards Nero; the Wind Dust mage's timing was perfect as I was about to meet Nero's leaping arc by the time the propulsion would peter out. For the fourth, and what would be the last time for a while, I activated my Semblance.

 _He's only a few more feet now,_ I thought, observing the super slowed-down scene. I looked to the other teams in the corners of my eyes; they weren't exactly struggling, but the large arms of even a teen-aged Raptor Grimm can prove to be dangerous on their own. An encounter with an adult Raptor would require a small army. _The Raptor's about to spit again, and it's not gonna be pretty for either of us to get hit by it. Even with Aura, we're going to be hurt badly. I need to push us both out of the way pronto_. With that, I deactivated my Semblance and let time return to its normal speed as I continued speeding through the air. Within minutes, I managed to catch Nero's foot, but the Raptor's mouth had swollen up and reared its head already.

"What the hell are you—Ack!" I gave Nero no explanation as I pulled his leg back, bringing us to side to side in the momentarily, before kicking his shoulder in order to push us apart. Just in time as well, as the Raptor gave a quick **_Graah!_** as is spit out another large fireball, but too small to hit either me or Nero as it passed. I landed second, but was met by a metal-covered punch, which was caught on its grooves by my dagger.

"What the hell was that for?" Nero's eyes burned with anger. His fist was shaking in my hand. "I had that under control myself!"

"If you had kept going with that momentum while the Raptor fired that fireball, you could have been badly hurt." I explained, pushing back his armored fist with my smaller blade. "Even with Aura, you would have been blown back completely. I practically saved your life, man. What, do you have a damn death wish or something?"

"I _had_ it." He responded, his green eyes glaring sharply.

"Doubt it." I countered. "This is a team-oriented mission, hence having all three teams. You can't just go and launch a lone-wolf plan."

"Was… was that a pun?"" Nero pulled his fist back, caught off guard by my last sentence.

"W-what? No, I just—" My dismissal was cut off by Taz and Noir cheering; whatever they were doing it was effective. I could just make out Anora Orabelle following through a downward slash to cut off the beast's left hand and cause the rest of the arm to dissolve. "Listen, we're wasting time here."

"I get that, but I had this under— _MOVE!_ " Nero reciprocated my earlier action by kicking me out of the way of a fireball landing near us. I ended up somersaulting backwards in order to get back to my feet. Nero landed from a light-footed backflip.

"Under control, then?" I taunted, not even faltering from our conversation. "Then what's your grand plan, Nero?"

"You're apparently a famed tactician, aren't you Roame? Don't you have your _ways_ to get around things?" He sneered back. I refused to show him that his statement rocked me. "Shouldn't you have something up your sleeves like you always do?"

"I would have saved my Aura and energy if some fucking _idiot_ didn't just launch himself at a giant hostile monster!"

"I had an idea to strike at its head and you pulled me away!"

"You were about to get knocked out by that fireball if it weren't for me!"

Another collision between the two of us was about to happen until **_BOOM!_** a small explosion sounded off of the forehead of the Raptor Grimm. As the smoke cleared, I could see that the green crystal in the white Grimm Mask was indeed cracked. I watched a few small pieces of it fell into the lava pool. Simultaneously, Nero and I turned to see a sweating Elysia lowering her staff before yelling.

"Now is not the time, boys!" With that, she pulled back behind Argos to check something on her staff. Linking that, I realized we still had a decent plan.

"How high can you really leap?" I asked Nero. He seemed genuinely surprised that my words weren't just more antagonisms.

"I'm a Faunus, so pretty high up, I would say." He said plainly. I took that into account before calling to the rest of our group.

"Argos! Elysia! I have a plan!"

 **On the right side of the Raptor Grimm…**

Cherry flipped her red tonfa batons so that the long barrels pointed at the Raptor's hand, peppering it with rounds, one side shot small Dust rounds while the other shot normal pistol rounds. Her Dust firing tonfa currently contained Gravity Dust, which helped to keep the Grimm's hand down for the rest of her team to go to town on. Acacio, the shortest member of the group, dashed back and forth as he slashed at the large Grimm hand with bladed tonfa. He added to the anchoring effort by using his Semblance to grow large thorny vines to wrap around the Raptor's wrist. Raptors had rather long arms, but would deal very deadly strikes at high speeds if not restrained quickly enough; Acacio knew this much.

Cressida was hacking at the monster's wrist, and alternated with Cherry to shoot at the beast's arm with her sword that she would change into a large hand cannon of a pistol. Her partner Jack, whose real name was Dartmouth Natterjack but ad pool. amantly insisted Cherry call him Jack, was the tallest of the group. He would use his Semblance to bound straight onto the Raptor's upper arm, only to slash and shoot with his dual-wield gunblades as he slid down the dark-skinned limb. After a few more minutes of hacking, slashing, and shooting, the right limb followed the fate of the left limb and dissolved.

"What now Rail—oh." Cherry turned to see a tall stone wall with a single person on top: the blonde from Railen's team. Railen himself was peppering the Raptor's face with bullets from looked like his dagger. Cherry took this moment to appreciate the similarity in their weapons.

Railen then turned and yelled for his other teammate, a Wolf faunus with grey hair who started sprinting at full speed toward the other boy. The moment they met, however, the Railen grabbed his teammate alongside him into the air and allowed said teammate to kick off of him. Cherry watched as the Wolf Faunus launched himself high into the air. Cherry heard Railen then shout out, "Elysia, now!"

With that, the blonde girl at the top of the stone wall swirled a metal staff around her before holding it out towards the airborne teammate, and once the airborne Faunus reached his leap's peak, she let out a violent, focused pulse in his direction. It propelled him straight towards the target that all teams immediately saw: the green gem in the middle of the Raptor's forehead.

"Rrraaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" A long, loud yell came from the Wolf Faunus as he pulled an armored claw-hand back and thrusting it forward in a spear-handed strike. The combined momentum of the strike and the Wind Dust propulsion was enough to completely shatter the green crystal, but not destroy it. Railen might now have seen it, but after the blow, the grey haired teammate was now falling into the lava pool due to a complete loos of momentum, which prompted Cherry into action.

Cherry's body shone with a bright pink; she was concentrating her Aura to activate her Semblance. With that done, her body felt like it was on fire! This was a familiar feeling, which she called Bloom. With it, her body's strength, speed and physical resistance was temporarily boosted. She took one powered step and started to run at a near inhuman speed. With on last step, Cherry leaped into the air in front of the Raptor Grimm, over the lava pool, and caught the Wolf Faunus' arm as he fell. They landed on the other side, where Taz's team approached them.

"Thanks for that," The saved boy said, holding out a hand to shake in thanks. "Nero."

"Cherry." She greeted with a smile.

"Argos!" Cherry turned to see Railen holding his shortsword with both hands. His bigger teammate looked to Railen, waiting for a cue of some sort. "Launch me, now!"

With that, another stone wall emerged from under Railen and shot the swordsman into the air towards the Raptor's head, which was still slowly recovering from Nero's attack. The gem, from Cherry could see, was badly cracked, but not fully destroyed. Railen now flew at it, with a much larger, heavier weapon than Nero's metal claw gauntlets.

He held his sword low by his waist to prepare a thrust as he was flung into the air, and upon getting to crystal, Railen gave one, powerful two-handed thrust into the crystal. The broken crystal, upon being stabbed directly in the middle, shone with a bright whitish-green light before exploding, the shockwave sending Railen flying back to the ground. Cherry watched as Taz's entire body sparked with a grey Aura. She watched as the boy literally _zoomed_ off towards the fallen comrade and managed to catch him.

 ** _GRRAAAOORRrrrrrrrr_** The Raptor's loud roar died as the remainder of its body dissolved into nothingness. All three teams cheered in celebration, and watched as green lights came down onto each individual fighter and _whoosh_ they were gone.

 **Back in Haven… (Railen's POV)**

In a green flash, we were back in Haven's Great Hall. Taz's team, Cherry's team, and my own team were stood on the stage in the front of the room. Argos, Noir, and a couple of Cherry's team looked around confused.

"Welcome back, students!" A familiar voice greeted loudly. Turning to see her, I found that it was Professor Artrus, who stood between Rama and Headmaster Watson. "You three are the last group of first-years to pass their initiation mission. Last, but successful nonetheless."

I glared at the crowd as I could hear some of them chuckling at Professor Artrus' statement. I looked around at the audience fully; I could definitely see that it was the other first years who were laughing at us, but the older students seemed to nod and just observe us with modest curiosity.

"With what we observed," Headmaster Watson walked forward with an echoing voice, and it took me a moment to realize they weren't using a microphone. Perhaps they used some sort of Dust enhancement in the air to amplify their voice. "We have deigned that these students have been accepted into Haven Hunter Academy, and will organize their teams as such." Professor Artrus took the lead once more.

"Anora Orabelle, Taz Kitsune, Calliope Brekker, Noir Ignatius." Artrus gestured for the named students to step forward onstage. "You will be known for the next four years as Team OCTN (Octane), lead by Calliope Brekker. We wish you the best of luck in Haven."

"Cherry Maraschino, Acacio Sage, Cressida Bristle, Dartmouth Natterjack," Artrus called, and the last named member winced as she said his full name. Nonetheless, they joined OCTN and stepped forward together. "You will be known for the next four years as team MSCN (Mason), and your leader is Cherry Maraschino. We wish you the best of luck in Haven."

"Argos Hadrix, Nero Banecraw, Railen Roame, Elysia Aurell." As the names were read off, the crowd starting murmuring among each other, with growing intensity after each name. The moment the fourth name was read off, the audience of students below started clamoring with noise. I found myself taking a step back at this, but was surprised moreso to see Elysia and Nero doing the same, wide eyed and apprehensive at the noise. Still, one thing bothered me about the names.

"Aurell?" I asked Elysia, who backed off even more at my question. "As in Aurell Conquest Inc.? Where did 'Ceres' come from?" She gulped, but did not answer. Nero also said nothing when I turned to him. At least I understood why they were talking about me in the crown, but I didn't know what would cause Nero to do so. Argos stood still, but I saw that he had his arms behind his back, hands kept together in shaking fists. _What did you do, Argos?_ I wondered inwardly.

"Students please, silence." Headmaster commanded calmly at the crowd. Immediately, the students below obeyed. Obviously, this man was not to be trifled with when brought to any sort of anger. He then nodded for Artrus to continue.

"Please step forward." She said, calmly. Artrus' eyes pleaded. She looked like she understood our reaction, but we needed to get this over with anyway. After a moment, the four of us tentatively took a few steps forward. I didn't want to look into the crowd, so I just looked straight. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Nero and Argos doing the same. "You will be known for the next four years as Team RAEN, with Railen Roame as your leader."

"Tch." I turned my head immediately. Nero had clicked his tongue at me, and I was rather irritated by that. _What the hell, are you still mad at me?_ I tried to throw my thoughts at him in anger. _I got us out of there, you better not be complaining_.

"We wish you the best of luck as you go through Haven." Artrus finished, before stepping aside and holding a hand out to the three teams on stage. "And that, Haven students, is the last of the initiation. First years will now be escorted to their assigned team rooms. You have the weekend to get comfortable and get to know each other. Classes start on the following Monday morning. Prepare yourselves." With that, the Great Hall's audience cleared out. I looked up to see Kestrel with a timid smile, waving us over to escort to our room. We would definitely have a lot to talk about there.

 **East Side of Haven City, Industrial Sector, 7:30 PM**

"We got rumors of the next heavy Dust shipment coming in the area next week, boss." A man with a grey and black jumpsuit approached a seated figure. "Should we go ahead with it?"

"Of course." A silky female voice answered. Her words were smooth and seductive, but practically oozed tones of mischief. "Why wouldn't we take up such an easy opportunity for more, ah, _family funding_."

"What if Haven kids get involved, miss?" The henchman asked. He visibly flinched as his boss clicked her tongue _Tch!_ And spun to meet him. She wore a dark brown leather vest over a white top that contoured to exaggerate her modest upper body. The black leather tights that she wore under a short slitted skirt accentuated every curve, from her waist to her runner's calves. She brought up a large, dark blue revolver and pointed it at the henchman, who dared not move. She smirked, as the man had asked quite a stupid question in her opinion.

"Then we teach them exactly why they don't meddle with a Shadow."

 **(Author's Notes**

 **Alright so, if you haven't noticed, writing action scenes aren't really my strong point. But I do try to make that up with the inclusion of other character's Semblances! Bleh, who am I kidding, even I know this chapter was a bit weak in that respect. Ugh, maybe this'll be a chapter to revise later. As always, however, thanks so much for reading!**

 **Also, the first baddie is revealed! Who is she? What will she do? Is. She. Single? Who knows, y'all will just have to wait. The following is a list (out of extreme thanks) to those who submitted their OCs. The same trend will go on with each new OC character that is properly introduced.**

 **OCs and their Contributers!  
** **Cressida Bristle - ultima-owner  
Noir Ignatius - Little-Qrow  
Acacio Sage - Vulcan2312  
Cherry Maraschino - MysteryAgain  
Anora Orabelle - Niar-Muse  
Taz Kitsune - Taz-the-monster  
Calliope Brekker - Wallflowerpower  
Dartmouth Natterjack - Mewisbetterthanyou  
Headmaster Ronan Watson - Maebird  
Rama Apocrypha - Zabaniya  
Kestrel - xxxcidexxx**

 **Legit though, a bountiful amount of love and thanks to all those who submitted an OC for this story. Just because you haven't seen yours, doesn't mean they won't be used!**

 **Also, I put a poll on my profile regarding my stories and what I should do now that summer is here. Please go over and take a look.**

 **AS USUAL, THANKS FOR READING, I APPRECIATE YOU TAKING YOUR TIME TO READ MY STORY. HOPE YOU ENJOY IT!**


	7. Chapter 7

I looked at the room we were assigned. It was at the end of a corridor, so we were luckily given a large room. The four beds were split into pairs, and lined up against opposite walls and were fit snug against the four corners of the room. Between the beds, along the walls in the space between beds, were large wooden desks with one wooden shelf above each of them. The desks had three drawers for storage along one side. On and near our beds were our larger bags of clothing and whatnot. Not a word was said as we all walked to our respective beds. An awkward silence filled the room.

"So…" I begin, sitting on my bed in the left corner of the room by the window. "It seems we have some reputations."

"Mmm…" Was Nero's only vocal response. He sighed and crossed his arms, looking down and refusing to make eye contact with anyone. I turned to see Argos, who was lying down on the other bed on my side of the room. My partner's eyes were closed, but there was no real way to know if he was actually sleeping or secretly listening in. Turning to Elysia, who occupied the bed directly across from mine, I could definitely see some signs of distress and a bit of anger. Her fists were balled, and her very form was trembling slightly.

"Elysia?" I call out to her. "You ok?"

"N-no." She answered definitively. "I'm not."

"If anything, your reputation is the widest known." I asked. "Why Ceres? Why not just Aurell?"

"I have my reasons for what I've done, Railen." The young woman answered calmly. "Of course, as do you, Nero, and Argos, I assume. I don't feel very comfortable talking about this right now."

"R-right." The way she talked, her voice shook with a sort of anxiety that I had never seen from her before. She was calm, collected throughout the Initiation Exam. Now, after her real name was revealed, Elysia looked vulnerable, haunted even, by whatever she's done. "I apologize."

"You of all people shouldn't even talk, Railen." She added with touch of venom. "You've many reputations from Sanctum that I'm sure many people have heard."

I stood up immediately. It took me a lot of will to not walk over to her and get in her face, a sort of primal reaction of mine. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I feel like you may already know." She retaliated, her hands still wrapped around her staff gripped hard, her knuckles taught with annoyance.

"You're not exactly out of the hole here, Elysia." Nero finally spoke back up. "Unless you've legally changed your name, what you've done is technically fraud."

Both Elysia and I glared at the Wolf Faunus, who was completely correct. I looked back at Elysia waiting for an answer, and sighed when she eventually shook her head.

"So identity fraud, then." I deduced.

"So a cheat, then." She countered.

"I _never_ cheated." I stepped forward, and she got off her bed.

"A liar as well, then." She pointed her staff at me. I don't know where are this hostility was coming from, but I didn't like it. I suddenly felt my dagger in my hand.

"Excuse me? gritted my teeth. "I don't exactly like what you're trying to imply."

"How unbecoming of a leader," I heard Nero scoff. "Losing his handle so soon. How mindless."

"You didn't have much of a brain charging at the Raptor back there." I countered. "It's like you have a death wish or something."

"And your show wasn't all-so impressive either," He retorted. Argos made no attempt to add anything in, though it would have been a little difficult for him to do so. "My idea would have still left an opening for people to attack the crystal in the first place."

"Yeah of course, following what everyone could call a stupid and unnecessary sacrifice play on your part." I countered. "What were you trying to prove there?"

I was answered with a glare, but was satisfied when he made no other comment. Before anyone else could speak up, all four Scrolls in the room _buzzed_ with a notification saying:

 **Team RAEN report to Headmaster's Office for pre-course meeting**

"Pre-course meeting?" Elysia read aloud. She looked to us for an explanation, but both Nero and I shrugged; we weren't told about any sort of meeting like this. Even Argos was roused and confused by this development. Then, another buzz from our Scrolls.

 **Are you ready? All four must tap the screen to continue.**

I shrugged, and tapped the screen, and looked up to see the rest of my team do so. Immediately, a green light surrounded us, not unlike the one from the initiation mission. After another few seconds, we found ourselves in a completely different location. The room was about five times the size of our dorm room, and was decorated with a multitude of softly glowing green crystals. In front of us was a large wooden table with paperwork scattered across the top, and a monitor facing who else but Headmaster Watson. The Faunus was seated, looking at us with a soft, sympathetic smile.

"Hello Team RAEN," He greeted us, and received general greetings in return. "I apologize for the abrupt summons, but it was to avoid any more confrontational commotions like the one earlier today." I could just make out the tip of his ears twitch lightly in his dark hair. "From what I could tell, there was also a bit of conflict amongst yourselves as well. Care to elaborate for me?"

I wanted to dispel this. It was up to the leader of team to take responsibility and solve it, right? Truth is, I didn't really know. I knew how to negotiate with people. I knew strategy. I knew survival. That last one was drilled into me from outside of Sanctum. None of this truly prepared me to lead a team. Even with this in mind, I wanted to speak up and dispel this notion of in-team conflict and try to resolve it myself. Before I could, however…

"I have a problem with the selection of leadership roles." Nero spoke. "Specifically within RAEN."

"Is that so?" Headmaster Watson asked, with a knowing smile. "From what was observed, you were foolhardy enough to run up _alone_ against a member of the Grimm species that has been responsible for the most Hunter's ends for the last two decades. Even at an adolescent age, that Raptor Grimm would have decimated you if Railen hadn't kicked you out of the way. Now, in what way do you think the leadership should fall?"

"If anything, Headmaster," Nero gritted his teeth, having been reminded of his failed tactic. "I feel Elysia should be the one to lead."

"I will have to object against that as well." Watson spoke before Nero could defend his point, the latter succinctly silenced again. "While it was an unfortunate mistake that we let her real name slip, but putting her rather _recognizable_ name at the lead, questions and investigations would ensue for all the wrong reasons. Despite the money Haven makes, we wouldn't be able to afford any cover-ups."

"What?" Nero and I asked simultaneously. We looked to Elysia once more, who only looked somewhat upset that our Headmaster talked about her predicament.

"Nonetheless," I turned back to Watson, "You all have a rather shaky path. Both ahead and behind all four of you. You're quite young, yet you have history with the world that won't be forgotten easily. That's why I feel you fit as Hunters, that's why I accepted you. Not because of your names, what you've done, or what you've committed yourselves to."

"And the leadership role?" Nero queried, gesturing to me. I rolled my eyes at this. _He just won't let that go? I've yet to hear a legitimate reason for a change in leadership_.

"Railen is the only one of you to have been given a leadership role." My attention was now on our Headmaster. How the fuck did he know that? _I've heard of you, Mr. Roame, from Sanctum and… other sources_ I recalled the first time we met, and what he said. What exactly did he learn about me? How in-depth was his information? "Even though it was rather minimal, I think he would do well to learn how to be a member and leader of a much more capable team."

Now? Now I was scared. This man obviously knew a lot about each of us, and he teased the idea of revealing our secrets at this very moment. That would be… pretty bad for me. I don't know about Argos or Nero, but I don't know how Elysia would react about my experience.

"And while, yes, it would be somewhat beneficial to learn each other's histories, it is ultimately up to you all to let your team know who you are." Headmaster Watson continued. "However, from here on out, you must make sure your eyes are set on the path that is your future as Hunters. You were recommended and _accepted_ into Haven Academy, where we have pride in having taught some of the most elite Hunters. As a _team_ , you will fail, pass, fight, and die as a team before you even think of doing so as a Hunter. I warn you all now, if your conflict over leadership becomes so great that it impedes your progression, I _will_ take action. Your responsibility as a _student_ and Hunter-to-be is imperative for your success. So please, do try and maintain the peace. I will see you all again next week, for first mission assignments."

"Thank you, Headmaster." All four of Team RAEN said, all simultaneously sullen after the lecture. He hadn't raised his voice, but his tone was sincere. Within moments, the green light surrounded us again and we were returned to our dorm room. And once again, our Scrolls buzzed.

So where do we go from here?

Argos looked to us all for an answer. We had a weekend before classes, and I was sure I didn't want my Haven career to be thwarted by something like this. But for right now, I had nothing. We had nothing but a dysfunctional team and no way to deal with it. So I answered Argos with an answer I've given before.

I made sure not to slam the door as I left.

 **Author's Note: Heyo everyone! BleachCadelina here!**

 **Sorry for the delay, been dealing with a lot of personal stuff and couldn't write very much. But I managed to finish writing this chapter as a birthday gift to myself! Turning 20 isn't all that, kids, I gotta tell you. Sorry for the short chapter, by the way. I know it wasn't as long as the previous chapters.**

 **Also, in the comments, let me know how you'd feel about me starting a as a sort of motivation to write more!**

 **NOW FOR REVIEW RESPONSES!  
Hiero II: Thanks for the criticism you've been giving me so far for this story. I'll definitely be taking it into account when I write future chapters.  
Wallflowerpower: Prepare yourself, friend! We got some things incoming!  
Niar-Muse: Anora is a cool character in general, in my opinion. I have plans for her. **

**Once again, thanks to all y'all for reading, and I'll see you all next chapter!**


	8. Chapter 8

I watched as Railen left the room, without any sort of verbal response to Argos's question. I looked to Elysia, who watched the door closed. The Headmaster made some reasonable points, and we had a whole weekend together to talk things out. The only problem was… how do we do that?

"Well, there goes our leader," I spoke up after a minute of awkward silence. I realized we were all staring at the door.

"Did you really think I'd be a better replacement for leader?" Elysia asked, her voice quiet, yet curious.

"Well, Argos would have a great deal of trouble trying to lead the team." I pointed out, before turning to the largest member of RAEN. "No offense, of course."

He shook his head and waved a hand at me dismissively before approaching his bed and sitting down on it. He laid down and closed his eyes. Argos hadn't changed out of his armor, so I assumed he would change later before actually going to sleep.

"And I doubt I would be given any credit as a leader after what everyone saw of me during initiation." I admitted. I had my reasons, but that would come later. My teammates were strangers that had large burdens of their own, and I had no right to try to share yet another heavy burden with them.

"Because you're a Banecraw, correct?" Elysia asked. "Is that why you were determined to lead?"

"At least you understand my motivation for being here, then." I concluded. "I didn't exactly tell you much when we first joined together."

"No," She answered. "But it's not difficult to hear about the rather _grisly_ affairs within one of the more influential Faunus families in Mistral when I'm part of one of the most influential industry families in all of Remnant."

"Then why wouldn't you defend yourself as such and try to be leader?" I asked.

"You heard what Headmaster Watson said, Nero." She said simply. "There's too much at stake if I were put at any sort of position that would leave me easily recognized by anyone on the outside."

"So the fake name, the reluctance to lead, no outward expression of your background whatsoever." I noted the prominent things that I've observed from the past few hours from our Dust specialist. "You ran, and are currently hiding away as a student of Haven."

"That's the simpler way to say it, yes." She alluded to a much more complicated history. Before I could say anything more, she approached her respective dresser, pulled out what appeared to be a nightgown and walked to the door. She turned to me and gave a small smile before continuing. "We may be teammates, but I'd rather not talk about it at the moment. We barely know each other, Nero. Perhaps, another day, when we don't have so many things on our minds."

I watched her forced smile turn into a brooding frown as she turned the doorknob, nightclothes in hand, and left for what I assumed to be a shower. Turning to the only other remaining teammate left in the room, Argos, who I deduced to be our defensive specialist, appeared to be napping. I took out my Scroll to see that it was evening, 8:30 PM to be exact. How time went by so fast, I didn't know. It seemed like a whole day since we were in the forest, and yet that happened earlier today.

"I'm going to go out for a walk too, Argos." I told him as I walked out. He waved an arm lazily and turned over on his bed.

I explored the halls of our end of Haven Academy, where the first and second years shared a whole wing. While the building itself was a simple square around a large courtyard, the building was very tall. The first two floors were reserved for the extremely large lecture and combat halls. The floors above that were reserved for the students' dorms, and above that was faculty offices and domiciles. In all, the height of the building went up to 6 floors. The dorms system was quite different. In the entrance-wise and the parallel parts of the Academy, it was only the one large hall. The entrance-wise door gave opening to the Great Hall, the general entrance area for students and visitors alike. The opposite side of the academy was and large door, granting access to the Grimm-infested forest and helipads. The other two large "walls" of the square academy were the dorms. The third years, while there were many second years and first years combined, stayed in the building parallel to the first and second years.

The halls weren't very decorated. Just bronze sconces and electric lamps lighting the brown and gold patterned corridor, whose pattern stayed the same throughout, except for the addition of red once one would reach the teacher's residency floors. Some students milled about with their friends in the hallway. Many of them sounded excited for what was to come this weekend. It wasn't until a I found a set of double doors, much larger than a normal dorm door, that I decided to stop exploring the halls themselves and take a detour. A plaque on the side said, "Outdoor Lounge." Out of curiosity, I entered the Lounge to see Railen, talking on his Scroll. He sat alone on what looked like a small bench at a coffee table. His eyes met mine, and he hung up.

"Hey Nero." He greeted. He didn't exactly sound enthusiastic to see me. Neither was I to him, though. "Did the rest of the team ask you to look for me?" I shook my head.

"Just… exploring." I answered. I was looking for a better word, but couldn't find one. Railen's blue eyes narrowed. Our team leader originally appeared to be much warmer and open to people in general, but seeing his eyes, I could see coldness in them. "I'm not here to complain."

He looked me up and down. "Are you here to try to ask what I've going on in my life, or…?"

"I've gotten a little out of Elysia," I admitted. "But I'm sure we'll all learn about each other in due time. For right now," I took a seat on a bench opposite him. "I just wish to apologize."

"Really, now?" He smirked. His cold blue eyes still bothered me, I don't know why.

"Yes." I sighed. "I just want you to understand that my ego did, in fact, get the best of me today. I'm not exactly what you would call a 'team player'."

"Well, despite what Headmaster Watson says," He retorted. "I'm not exactly a leader either. So why don't we make a deal?"

"I'm listening."

"I'll take care of the team's strategy for combat," He began. "And you can take care of the more _diplomatic_ situations."

"As in?" I asked.

"Things that don't ask for fighting." He explained. "From the _minor_ leadership experience I had, I was responsible for both uh… execution of projects and dealing with authorities. It'd be easier if you and Elysia could handle that."

"Because of our names." I concluded for him. The way he said "execution" stuck with me longer than I thought it would. _He's hiding something._ I wagered inwardly. _Then again, so are Elysia and I, so I can't exactly say anything to provoke it_.

"If you've got it, use it to your advantage." He shrugged.

"I don't know how I feel about that." I said. "It still puts a target on me and Elysia, and if you remember, we can't have any focus on her and I would appreciate the focus away from me."

He sighed at this and took a minute of silence. Suddenly, his blue eyes flashed, causing me to instinctively get up and prepare for an attack. When I calmed down, I saw that he was laughing and his blue eyes were no longer as cold.

"You're very on edge, Nero." Railen said. "Calm down, we're pretty much protected here at Haven."

"You seem very confident of your safety here." I countered. "Why is that?"

"One, our professors and Headmaster are experienced Hunters." He answered. "Two, I was promised that we'd be safe before I was even 'recommended' here."

"Why the air quotes?" I asked.

"Rama and I have some history." He explained. "He trained in my last two years at Sanctum, helping me out with tournaments and helping my family with financial issues."

"Financial issues?" I repeated. "And really, Professor Apochrypha?"

"Yeah, him." He smirked. "That's why he keeps telling me he's 'gonna give me hell' and all that down talk."

"I'll have to think this 'deal' over, Railen." I admitted. I didn't like it, but the way he brought it up so confidently made me want to go through with it. That didn't feel right, but he just seemed to exude a feeling of absolution that the deal would happen. I resisted the feeling to say yes immediately. "There's a lot at stake if we put me and Elysia in more recognizable positions."

"Right, of course." Railen nodded, not upset with my answer in any way. "That's perfectly fine. I'm sure we'll come up with something that benefits all of us in the end." He flashed a quick smile that told me he wasn't mad. My tail was twitching a bit against the bench under me; my Faunus instincts were keeping me wary.

In the end, all this meeting ended up being was a bunch of small talk. We went back and forth about general things about Haven and each other, not really going in depth or anything, but we at least scratched the surface. I could still tell that he was hiding things, though.

"If you don't mind me asking," I asked, following the nonchalant tone of our conversation. "Who were you talking to earlier?"

"My sister." He said casually. "Younger. Goes to Sanctum at the moment, and we like to keep in touch from time to time."

"That's… nice." I nodded in acknowledgement. "Giving her the rundown of Haven?"

"Yeah." Railen said, his eyes now looked very tired. "Listen, Nero. I'm glad we had this talk, but I think it's getting late. We should be getting ready for bed. They're giving us a tour of the building and stuff tomorrow."

Taking out and checking my ow Scroll, I saw that he was correct. It was already 9:45 PM, with lights out around 11. With everything said and done, I got up, turned and walked over to the way back into the hallway. Before I left the Lounge, I looked back and saw Railen staring at his own Scroll apparently examining it carefully.

"Railen," I called out to him, and thankfully caught his attention. "I don't fully trust you yet but…" I sighed. "I'll have to trust your ability as a strategist for now as our leader."

"Thanks, Nero." He responded. His blue no longer shone coldly, which calmed me down a little. "You go on ahead. I still gotta think things over before I turn in for the night."

I nodded and left. When I entered our room, the light was dimmed enough to allow myself and Railen enough visibility to change quickly and lay in our own beds. Checking the room, I saw that both Elysia and Argos had already fallen asleep; the latter had apparently changed out of his armor for tan pajama pants and a white t-shirt. I quickly changed into my own nightclothes and lay down on my bed, which shared a side with Elysia.

I felt a little awkward having to share a room that was only 25% female, and felt some pity for her. I shook my head and dispelled such thoughts, because it just felt like I was making her a smaller bit of the team that she really is; she really did manage to _literally_ propel things into motion during initiation. Somehow, Railen saw that much faster than I've ever even tried to think. I guess that's why he's the leader, just on strategic prowess alone. Suddenly, my Scroll buzzed with a notification: I received a text message from Railen himself. It read:

"I didn't really want to be a team leader in the first place."

I heard our door open once more, but immediately closed my Scroll and feigned sleep. In the darkness, I heard Railen change from armor to nightclothes, sigh, and get into bed. Tomorrow was supposed to be a jovial day of sorts, yet I couldn't feel anything except anxious at the moment.

 **A/N: Eyo, BleachCadelina here with another short chapter for y'all. Sorry about the length, I just wanted to get this out before I forgot it. Whatcha think of Nero's POV? Leave any and all criticisms and advice in the reviews/comments! I'm still trying to improve my writing, so let me know what to work on!**

 **Review Responses:  
Maebird: I'm doing my best to make Ronan Watson a damn good Headmaster. He'll show up more in the future, and I hope you like him then, too!  
MysteryAgain: Well, I hope this helped the "fleshing out" a bit. **

**Also, just because the two of them have come to a resolution in terms of leadership, doesn't mean they'll still work well together in the end. This is all still beginning, and I'm glad to have y'all for the ride!**

 **Thanks again for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it!**

 **If you're interested in a small, somewhat comedic RWBY story, check out my OC-centric story "Nobody's Tale in Vale." I hope more people will pick that up and enjoy that too.**


	9. Chapter 9

**PLS READ THE AUTHOR'S NOTE AFTER THE CHAPTER THNX**

"Were these lockers out here yesterday?" I asked. There were four lockers outside, next to the door to our dorm. They each were as tall as the ceiling and slightly broader than my own shoulders. I had just fully changed into the school's black uniform and was the first to exit the room to begin the day. Mostly it was to let Elysia finish changing in peace. She was the last of us to take a shower and begin to change.

"What are you talking abou- oh." Nero popped out of the room to see what I was talking about. His dark hair and tail really seemed to blend into the dark uniform colors. He stepped towards the lockers and examined them. "They're apparently locked and unlocked through PIN codes."

"They're rocket lockers," Elysia said, emerging fully dressed in the dark uniform, a huge contrast to her light complexion and blonde hair. "They're also connected directly to our Scrolls. Our PINs are our ID numbers given to us, also found on our Scrolls. We can summon them to our location at the press of a button, and only open for us."

"And you know this how?" I asked her. She sighed and showed her own Scroll, which was opened to what looked like the Haven Academy website.

"If you sign in to the official website of the academy as a student, they tell you everything the basic rundown of what a student receives here. It also comes with a map." Elysia explained. "Honestly, I'd thought you all would have already down some research last night. Argos and I did. Speaking of which…" She opened our room's door open, allowing Argos is walk through. "Shall we head to the Great Hall?"

"Right, breakfast." I confirmed. "Hopefully they don't drug us this time."

With that, we headed back to the Great Hall, and just like yesterday the Great Hall now acted as a large cafeteria. Four large tables covered in different food platters at which all the students sat. Like any normal school cafeteria, the room was practically filled with loud laughter and conversation among friends and rivals.

"That's another thing I found in my research," Elysia said as we approached the now-cafeteria. "Haven truly only chooses _elite_ students, hence as to why there's so few students compared to both Atlas and Beacon."

"Really?" Nero asked her. I knew this already, Rama had given me the whole vocal tour about the place and the way they chose their students. It didn't hurt to listen and see if there were any other important little tidbits to keep in mind.

"Hey RAEN!" A familiar female voice called out to us. Looking over the crowd, I saw Cherry Maraschino standing and waving for our attention. Her appearance was very obvious amongst her surroundings. "We saved seats for you guys!"

This callout caused the commotion of the cafeteria dial down immensely. Ignoring the volume change, we walked as a team to the table. There was still muttering amongst students, but I could feel dozens of pairs of eyes following our every move. It didn't seem to be of malicious intent, just curious and judgmental.

We managed to meet up with Cherry, who was joined by the rest of Team MSCN. On the opposite side of table was Team OCTN, with a gracious amount of space around Calliope. Seeing as the rest of the occupants at this table looked fairly younger and farther spread apart along the table, that the normal-school idea of seating based on grade was set in form.

Noir and Taz greeted us with a cheery "Eyo!" Well, at least Taz was cheery. Noir looked absolutely miserable, but as Taz assured us, his partner was always like this. Calliope only us greeted with a small smile and return to munching on eggs. Anora, the team leader and tallest of the group, gave a warm smile and nod to the four of us as we approached and sat down.

"Good morning, Team RAEN." The tall knightess greeted warmly. Out of her armor and in the Haven uniform, the black tones really bringing out the color of her amber hair and orange eyes. "I trust you had a good first night's sleep?"

"Eh, I suppose." I shrugged. Argos did the same, eliciting a small giggle from Anora. ELysia and Nero simply nodded as they passed down plates amongst ourselves and started getting food from the serving platters in the middle of the table.

"What were you guys talking about over there by the way," Taz asked. "About this place only having elite students?"

"You could hear us from here?" I asked.

"Perks of having Faunus ears, Railen." He smiled as he grabbed a muffin from a tray of assorted baked goods.

"Well, Atlas makes it a basic requirement for all combat school graduates to attend Hunter Academies as part of their militaristic style, and both Vacuo's Shade and Vale's Beacon academies are based on application and scouts." Elysia said. "Haven is extremely selective of it students, hence why the other schools have much greater student populations."

"Of course," Anora said. "That's why many Mistral civilians like to treat Haven students like mini-celebrities, even if we've just started."

"We're the best that all of Mistral has to offer, then?" I concluded, and received a nod from Anora in response.

"Oh, that's right!" Cherry suddenly exclaimed. "I never introduced RAEN to the rest of MSCN."

"Acacio Sage." An bark-brown haired boy extended an arm, which we all shook. He appeared to be slightly shorter than Noir. He also had a slightly crooked nose. "I'm also a Wolf Faunus, by the way." He mentioned, much to Taz's cheer.

"Cousin!" Taz jested, causing Noir to roll his eyes and eliciting a chuckle from Acacio.

"Sure, Taz." He joked. As he spoke, I noticed he had a bit of a restrained accent. It sounded quite foreign.

"Where are you from, Acacio?" Nero, who apparently also noticed it, asked. "You have a bit of an accent."

"Southern outskirts of Vale." The brunette boy answered. "Grew up a farmer with a rather _noticeable_ accent. It comes out more when I ramble, I promise ya."

"Vale?" Elysia asked, sounding quite sincere of her curiosity. "What was it like there?"

"Well, again I lived in the southern outskirts in a farming town." Acacio said. "Not a lot of experience with living with in the inner regions, so I can't really say much other than it was quite around my parts."

"That sounds peaceful." Elysia commented with a polite smile. The other boy on Team MSCN reached forward and offered a hand, which we shook.

"Dartmouth Natterjack," He shook my hand with great vigor and enthusiasm. A large smile on his face really shone with eagerness to meet us. "But please, my friends call me Jack!"

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Jack." I obliged. At my response, his dark blue eyes and bright green hair seemed to brighten up, if that was even possible for the latter.

"You're Railen Roame!" He gasped.

"U-um…" I flinched; I was never really used to being recognized for anything. "Y-yes I am."

"I freaking _loved_ your cameo in X-Ray and Vav!" He said, bringing up some rather… weird memories.

"Oh, the cartoon series." I remembered. "That was an… interesting time."

"Wait, _Natterjack_?" Elysia asked. "As in the Southern Mistral capital family?"

"Oh, yeah." He subdued his enthusiasm a bit. "How could you tell?"

"The kilt is a dead giveaway." Nero pointed at Jack's lower body, which was indeed in a green kilt. How I didn't notice that, I'll never know. "The Natterjack family has a cultural tie to the old southern Mistral, in which it was a great family of combat nobles, known for going into combat wearing kilts."

"Eh, I suppose it's important." Jack shrugged. "I just like it because of how it looks when I jump."

"Like a cape, then?" I added, digging into my eggs. Argos was contently listening to our new acquaintances introduce themselves.

"Exactly!" Jack responded. _He must really like superhero stuff then_ , I thought. I turned to the last member of Team MSCN, who was glaring at me intently.

"Can I help you?" I asked, a bit perturbed at her glare.

"Where are you from, Railen?" She asked. Her red hair had blue highlights that clashed violently. Her blue eyes had little specs of green that, while absolutely natural, appeared rather alien yet very… familiar.

"Southern Mistral." I immediately answered.

"What part of Southern Mistral?" She pressed.

"What do you mean?" Cherry was actually surprised at how her teammate was basically interrogating me. Jack seemed offended that someone on his team was grilling someone he looked up to. Acacio was partially paying attention, as Taz and Noir were currently arguing about how many muffins Taz had eaten for breakfast and why he needed to stop doing so.

"What part of the south did you grow up in?" She said. _I still don't even know your name,_ I thought. _But I know I've met you before_.

"Junks." I replied, causing Jack, Nero, Elysia to turn to me. I looked back at them and went for more breakfast. "What?"

"Did you have a motorcycle when you lived in the Junks, Railen?" She asked, getting out of her seat and stepping towards me with a rather threatening vibe about her.

"Yes."

"Did you happen to drive through an alley and crash into a water tank some time ago?" She asked, her tone tense. That was specific, the only way she could have known that was if— _wait_.

"That… was you?" I asked. Memories flooding back to me now, as an old friend of mine and I were escaping on my old motorcycle to get away from the police for stealing some food from the local market. I made a wrong turn into an alley and… well…

"Yes, you almost killed me that day." She stated flatly. Almost everyone in earshot (which was basically just the three teams) turned to us with rapt attention.

"Well," I could feel the others' eyes on me as I spoke. "I greatly apologize. I made a wrong turn that day and was distracted from what was chasing us."

"The cops." She stated.

"Yes, the cops." I repeated.

"The _police_ chased after you?" Elysia asked, bewildered.

"I'll explain when we're not eating in front of othe people who may be listening." I said, finding a way out of explaining. I then turned to the girl who was interrogating me and continued. "Again, I'm really sorry about that. I promise not to do that again."

"Just promise me you'll never bring me anywhere near one of those death machines ever again." She prompted as her eyes bore into my very soul.

"Deal." I said offering my hand to shake. "I'mglad we've come to that understanding, miss…"

"Cressida Bristle." She finally smiled, if anything it was a bit smug but mostly kind. She took my hand and shook it. "I'm glad I can finally make friends with the guy who nearly killed me!"

"That's rather grim." I noted.

"Wait, you were five at the time when you could drive a motorcycle?" She asked once more.

"Well, I never said I drove it well at that point." I retorted. "I'm rather good at it nowadays."

With that, we all calmed down and continued to eat breakfast. Small talk all around, and smiles from everyone, even Noir from time to time. As I looked around, I could still see the older students casting glances our way, sizing us up. I didn't care at the moment; I was just content with taking my days here slow and steady until the need calls for chaos. Looking at our group of three teams, I could already see a lot of memories here. Both teams held a lot of potential, especially with the reputations among us, and not just in RAEN.

Now, all we had to do for today was survive our first round of classes.

 **A/N: Heyo, BleachCadelina here! Sorry for such a short, filler-y chapter. I've been busy prepping for a two-week long trip to Poland which I'm leaving for in about... 2 hours from when I'm writing this (it's noon right now. Hiiiiiiigh nooon). So yeah, it'll be a while until I update any story. Just wanted to say thanks, once again, for reading and I hope you enjoy the rest of what's to come for this story.**

 **I know it seems slow right now, but trust me, things will kick off in a few coming chapters, I promise y'all.**

 **See you all next time!**

 **Also, I will be putting up a poll regarding whether or not I should make a . Please go to my page and answer truthfully.**


	10. Chapter 10

I never thought I'd be so bored by a history class. I mean, Professor Artrus knew what she was talking about, but all of it was nothing I hadn't read before. She spoke like a regular college lecturer, except most history teachers weren't as in depth and knowledgeable as Professor Artrus. Seeing as I had done a lot of reading of the history of Remnant and Mistral on my own, I was simply listening to her. I looked to the rest of my team, who were paying rapt attention to the lecture and taking notes.

"Mister Roame!" Our lecturer called me. Upon to turning to meet her attention, I could see her golden irises, which were normally warm and kind, bore upon me with a coldness that made me flinch a bit. It was like she flipped a switch; she was very aloof and calm while she lectured, and now she looked rather… angry at. Her golden orbs flicked between my empty desk and my face. "You must be rather knowledgeable and cocky to think you shouldn't take notes in my class."

"Well…" I wasn't sure how to respond.

"In that case, could you tell me the downfall of the first defense against the Grimm, made by the First Official Mistralian Militia?" She demanded with an even tone, but her eyes told me that I'd be punished severely if I couldn't answer her.

"Basically, the climate was their downfall." I answered after a moment of deliberation. She nodded slightly, but gestured me to go on. I glanced to Elysia, who sat next to me, who observed my predicament with slight panic and unease. Returning my gaze to our teacher, I continued my answer. "The first defensive line for the militia was poorly planned; they made the mistake of having built their point in the valleys just before the Libestraum Mountains in the middle of winter. The moment the first wave of Grimm had approached, Nevermores on the mountains were intelligent enough to crash into the mountainsides and cause avalanches, which took killed a good third of the First Militia's forces and sending the rest into massive disarray. As such, the Grimm took advantage and devastated the remaining forces."

"Impressive, Roame." Professor Artrus complimented. Her golden eyes warmed up a little but their intensity remained. "And what would you have done to improve the situation?"

"Split up the group." I stated normally. "The group leaders, along with the rest of the militia's forces, had no real military or even Hunter experience. No one really listened to them, and they were really close to mutiny any every point of their development. It would have been easier for plans to be enacted and they wouldn't have to argue and end up giving up to build their fort in the valley."

"Interesting point." Artrus smiled, then turned to the rest of the class. "Anyone else with any additional remarks? Anyone refute those ideas?" When no one spoke up, she turned back to me and said, "Mr. Roame, while it does seem you have a firm grasp on Mistralian history and some strategy, it doesn't hurt to still take notes in class for the more obscure things that will come up on _exams_."

"Right…" I sighed my answer, and went to pull out some paper and a pen. After that, the class went on without any other interruption. I could just make out Jack on Team MSCN with his head in his arms, quietly napping. I followed Professor's Artrus as she walked over to Jack, and drilled him with questions he had no idea about. Poor buddy could use some tutoring.

 **. . . . .**

Now, we had arrived at our second and only other class for today. Looking to our team leader, I could see that Railen was a bit… uncomfortable. I remember him saying that he had history with Professor Apocrypha, I just didn't really know the true extent of it. He kept his focus on the man's very move, as if accusing him of something. After a few minutes of watching him fidget in his seat, I spoke up.

"Railen, are you alright?" I asked him. Apparently, I had taken him out of a sort of stupor, because he jumped at the sound of his name.

"Uh, yeah." His answer was uncertain. "Why, what's up?"

"You're rather tetchy about this class." I remarked.

"Just not used to having him in a classroom setting." He answered. "Combat practice for me was always one-on-one with him, so I don't know what to expect from him and—"

"Railen Roame, please come down for the first round of combat!" Professor Apocrypha called our team leader.

"Fuck."

I slightly recoiled at my leader's curse and watched him walk down to the combat arena. It was a large arena, about the size of a small running track. His opponent, chosen by the professor, was taller and broader than Argos, but with shaggy blonde hair and blue eyes. He hefted a large hammer over his shoulder.

"C'mon, teach!" He laughed at Railen's approach. He pointed at the smaller, scrawny-looking student and asked, "You're gonna have me go against a second year?"

All Railen responded with was a raised eyebrow and a flat expression. He looked to Apocrypha with a silent question, and the teacher pointed to a room behind him. Minutes later, he emerged fully dressed in his armor, with his short sword at his side and his dagger in a clasped compartment on his right arm.

"Sol," Apocrypha began. "Vytal Festival is next year, and you'll be made to face students of every year in their academies. Age makes no difference here."

"Whatever. Yo, Roame!" Sol rolled his eyes as he called out his opponent. "I know who you are, buddy. And I don't care. I just know that I'm gonna drag you through the dirt today."

A holographic display appeared above the arena, showing the two fighters' names and Aura levels. I took this time to really see how Railen would fight. He did mention something about living in the Junctions in Southern Mistral, so he might have some experience fighting against other people, with the region's given reputation. At the sound of a whistle from Professor Apocrypha, the two drew their weapons and the battle officially began.

Immediately, Railen kept himself far from his opponent, taking several steps back from his original position. At this, Sol laughed aloud and changed his grip on his hammer so that the smashing side of the hammer pointed out at Railen. With a twist and a bit of a shove, his hammer launched a few projectiles at Railen, who dodged in time to look beside him and see that the projectiles had exploded. His blue eyes flashed once and the smaller combatant dashed in. _Smart move_ , I thought. _Wait to see what the opponent can do from a distance and make a beginning strategy from there, there should be a lot of flow from—wait._ I noticed something important was missing. _Did Railen not draw his dagger?_ Indeed, even though I knew Railen used both his sword and his dagger during initiation, he had chosen not to draw it here for some reason.

"What are you planning to do, Railen?" I asked quietly. Thanks to his speed, Railen was able to close in with a few slashes at Sol's core, which translated to about a fourth of the latter's Aura level to be depleted. Suddenly, with Railen closer, Sol's grip on his hammer changed and he started swinging. A sort of dark blue aura enveloped his figure, alluding to the use of his Semblance which was…?

"Aaaaaarrrgh!" A mighty swing of his hammer came down in front of him, where Railen had stood a millisecond before. It slammed into the ground with an unexpected strength; even with us being in the last row of seats, we could still feel it in our legs. The doors shook rather violently as well. In the ground was a shattered part of the protective shield, the mere power of this swing had broken through the barrier and cracked the ground. A sigh could be heard from Professor Apocrypha. After this powerful strike, Railen took advantage of the opening to unleash a barrage of strikes with his sword, gradually bringing Sol's Aura down and his ire up. Blows from Sol effectively made space, but the smaller student would always manage to get a few strikes in.

Suddenly, Railen hopped out and away from Sol's effective radius. His head tilted up to check the Aura -levels; he had gone through that entire time without losing any Aura. Looking around, I could see many other student looking on in either curiosity or awe. Jack was absolutely ecstatic at the sight of his favorite semi-celebrity doing so well in battle.

Railen's eyes flashed once more; I glared to see what that did for him, but apparently it was nothing physically obvious. He then dashed once more, short sword ready, and spun clockwise and delivered a slash that knocked back Sol's hammer swing and gave a wide opening. _But, with given Sol's heavier chest armor, it's gonna take much more to finish this fight_. I noted, and was somewhat confused as Railen spun counter-clockwise in a way that he stood in a lunge into Sol's middle. However, as his whole left side faced Sol, his sword in his right hand would be forced to be a stabbing blow that wouldn't do much to Sol to take out some Aura.

Sol sucked his middle in, and with how much smaller Railen was, the latter was basically given a full opening to Sol's stomach if it weren't armored. What surprised me was his following move: right as his stabbing arm crossed under his left arm, time seemed to slow down in the room. My eyes watched as his left hand went deftly to his right arm to his dagger, unclasped the weapon, and with his second spin's momentum brought it out and upward towards a vital area that Sol's armor did not protect: his throat. _Oh,_ I thought. _That's how he's going to end it. That's… really smart_.

Time seemed to come back to normal as Railen's dagger came up to Sol's throat and with a harsh _slash!_ The match's final blow was landed, and Sol's Aura was completely depleted with a strike to a vital area of his body. However, the larger boy crashed to the ground, clutching his throat and having some difficulty breathing. A deadly glare from the loser bore into the apathetic victor's own eyes.

"Roame, that last strike was overkill, and was not necessary to end the fight." Professor Apocrypha said, a smirk on his face betraying his serious tone.

"Well, I'm supposed to end the fight somehow, right?" Railen queried. "Seriously, overkill?"

"Yes, overkill and unsportsmanlike." Our professor said. "This is just combat _training_ , we're not trying to kill each other here. Detention."

"What?" Railen exclaimed. I wasn't exactly happy with the order either, but I did agree with our teacher's comments. That strike should be reserved for killing monsters or actual dire situations against another fighter.

"You're staying after class with me, Roame." Apocrypha stated plainly, before calling out. "Any volunteers for the next bout?"

"I wish to battle!" Anora Orabelle raised her hand, and our teacher allowed her to get her armor on. Upon her departure, Apocrypha called to the class for another combatant, but was interrupted by Orabelle. "Actually Professor, I was wondering if it would be alright to battle Railen?"

The teacher looked to the mentioned student, who was already halfback to our seats. He sighed, before nodding his approval. Railen looked to me with a look of annoyance before returning to the arena floor.

This fight, between a young champion and a member of a legendary Hunter warrior-class family would be very interesting to say the least.

 **(A/N: Eyo, BleachCadelina here with another short, but action packed chapter. Here, you get your first combat practice battle, and with another interesting one on the way. With that said, I need to let y'all know that classes have started again and as I have declared my English major, I might not have a lot of free time to write for this story. I'll definitely try my best for y'all, though.**

 **Also, if you didn't see the last update (previous chapter), I have a dilemma on deciding what to write next in terms of a Crossover. So, go on over to the previous chapter to see what choices there are, then go onto my profile and choose your preference on the poll I made there.**

 **That's all for now. See ya next chapter!**


	11. Chapter 11

As I walked back down to the arena, Anora emerged from the prep room. I inwardly realized that I didn't change out of my own armor. Examining my new opponent from afar, she was the very definition of female knight. Her brass plate armor protected almost her entire body. Unlike Sol, her neck was well-protected. The only thing exposed was her head. Even then, her kite shield would do well to provide additional defense to her body. Her longsword was almost twice as long as my shortsword. She wore brass armored boots and leather gauntlets that would guarantee painful hits from in close.

"Ready?" Rama counted off, as both of us nodded. I drew my sword and my left hand, for a second, started to reach backward for some reason. Anora raised an eyebrow at this action, a small smirk on her previously calm visage. _Didn't you use a shield in the Sanctum tournament?_ I recalled her question during initiation. I had faced a good amount of similarly armed students in Sanctum, but I had never gotten the chance to fight someone with the same training as Anora Orabelle. The Orabelle family is a family of renowned Hunters. I finally drew my dagger and gripped it so the blade pointed back. A moment passed, then our Professor announced, "Begin!"

I took the offensive this time. The key to winning against a well-trained armored opponent is to get inside their radius, then find and exploit any weaknesses. Usually, their backs have weaker coverage. This battle, however, would be very different. Upon my closing in, Anora slashed outward with her sword, forcing me to roll under the flying blade and go for a few blows until _boom!_ a fist of hardened white leather met the side of my head and sent me out of her radius.

I stepped back for a moment to assess the damage; the punch managed to take a small chunk of my Aura level, but the wound itself hurt. A quick, confident smirk broke her intensely focused gaze before she charged herself, launching a self-defense instinct within me with the need for some distance. I pointed my dagger and very quickly fired three Fire Dust bolts that I left floating in a triangle formation. I felt my focused my Aura around my right hand and was quickly answered by a velvety feeling on my hand and wrist. Knowing that the process was done, I punched the floating Dust bolts with great force towards Anora. The force of the punch itself pushed me back, but also slowed Anora down and forced her to shield her face from the small explosive projectiles. With a quick glance, I saw that the explosive damage did find purchase as our Aura levels now matched once again. With her stepping back to reveal her face, she provided an opening. I took this opportunity and activated my Semblance for the third time today to find out what to do next. As such, time slowed down once more to let me think of a quick strategy.

 _She's very capable at close combat,_ I noted. _And her outward defense is very strong as well_. My face still hurt from where she punched me. I sighed mentally. _The best I can do is hope to tire her out and whittle her Aura down as quickly as possible._ Even with that, the outcome of this battle can go either way. She had better defense, and our offense was just about matched. My experience fighting with a shield was probably the only reason why I stayed in so long. With that, I deactivated my Semblance.

I dashed at Anora, hoping she was still off-balance from my last attack. Unfortunately for me, she was ready for me. In a surprising move that I've never seen from anyone other than myself, she launched her _shield_ at me and I had to use my full strength to slam it away with my sword. It was a heavy shield as well, most likely steel. But I had no real chance to guess as Anora now took to the offensive and— _was her sword even longer now?_ I noticed her longsword now looked like it added at least five more inches in width to now classify it as a claymore. I brought up my left hand to deflect as much of this next blow with my dagger. The blow itself was extremely heavy, and I could feel the full brunt of her strength behind the sword as the attack sent me slightly into the air. Luckily, I still landed on my feet. I dashed to meet her on her follow up downward slash and slashed at her torso. I managed to dodge her slash with a quick roll to her rear. Upon finding my footing, I jumped at her back and pushed off of it and leaving me airborne as she stumbled forward a bit. Shifting the grip on my dagger, I unleashed another trio of Fire Dust bolts and punched it at her and it exploded on her back. Upon my landing, there was still some smoke covering her general area.

 _Good, she's still recovering_ , I noted. Dashing in once more, I readied my shortsword for a rightward slash that would definitely take a good part of her Aura down. Until an impossibly bright light overwhelmed the smoke and blinded me. With eyes closed, I took a quick estimation and _slash_ let my blade go. I winced as it cut through only air, and my head was knocked downward by what I assumed was her sword. Suddenly a harsh pain exploded in my gut as what felt like a knee slammed into my already curled-up midsection, pushing me off the ground.

"Oooh," a pained cringe and other sounds of observing pain echoed through the audience. While I was still in the air, another leather fist slammed into me and sent me flying to the edge of the arena, and the buzzer sounded.

"That's the match!" Roma announced. "Anora is the winner!"

I took my time to get up; I rolled over to see that she still had a little less than half than Aura left while mine sat a just below the cut-off point for combat practices. I got up slowly, keeping my winces low and clutching my gut. Looking at Anora, she looked to me with a smile, but spoke with a gentle tone.

"Are you alright, Railen?" Her amber eyes showing sincere care for me after a near-dominating battle.

"Yeah," I took a few shallow breaths. I looked to Roma to tell him,"I'm just gonna… head to the infirmary now."

"Alright," He said. "You still have detention with me later, Roame."

"Yeah, sure." I walked out of the arena, feeling the stares of the viewers on me the whole way up the stairs. Argos rose when I passed by and walked out of the seating section to join me. When I looked to him for an explanation, he just nodded and gestured that I follow him. "Right, thanks partner."

 **. . . . .**

The nurse gave me some painkillers and some Aural boosters to let me recover in time for Roma detention. Wonderfully convenient, isn't it? It stopped hurting after a while but the nurse just wanted to make sure I had recovered fully before sending me back. Then, out of nowhere, Nero and Elysia came bounding into the large room.

"Hey, you all didn't need to visit little ol' me." I joked. Nero sighed and rolled his eyes.

"You took quite a few hard hits that the end there, Railen." Elysia commented. "Class just ended, and we just wanted to know, out of common courtesy, if our _leader_ was doing better."

"I'm feeling alright," I reported. Nero was regarding me with a glare that wasn't accusatory, but moreso curious.

"Where did you learn to fight?" Nero asked. "I mean, while I could see the basic swordfighting can come from Sanctum's training, but some things you did are very… unorthodox in a way."

"Like?" I reached for an example.

"Like the throat strike." Elysia answered for him. _Right_ , I recalled that fight. _That was apparently overkill_.

"Well," I began. "When you live in a rather dangerous place for a long time, you have to learn how to find a way to end all sorts of confrontations. Sometimes, it results in rather grisly endings."

"That's rather grim." Nero remarked. I immediately responded to him with a chuckle.

"I learned how to fight and take down other people before learning how to deal with Grimm." At this Elysia's eyes widened.

"In the Southern Juntion, correct?" She called the place by it's proper name.

"Yes, that, the Junks." I clarified. "You fight to survive, or you lose more than just the food and money on you at that point."

"You fight with a survivalist mindset, hoping to end the confrontation as definitively as possible." Nero said. "Rather harsh for a combat practice class."

"Force of habit," I shrugged. "Especially against an arrogant ass who thinks he's better than whoever he faces." My Scroll buzzed to show a message of agreement from Argos.

He did kind of deserve it.

"See?" I let Nero and Elysia read it. "Argos agrees with me."

"You might have also started something, though." Elysia said. "You appeared to have crossed the line with that last strike on Sol Freyr."

"I can deal with that then." I supposed. "If he tries to approach you guys, however, let me know."

"We can deal with bullies, Railen." Nero said. I shook my head.

"If he starts something, it's between me and him." I clarified. "If he goes after you all, that out of bounds and deserves reciprocation."

"You make it sound more eloquent that it truly is." Elysia noted. "Why?"

"Practice?" I shrugged again. After a few more minutes of casual small talk, the nurse passed by.

"Railen, you're good to go to detention now." She said. "Take care."

 **. . . . .**

"What the hell was that?" Rama interrogated. I was sat in the front row of the empty arena classroom.

"You had me fight to win, and I won." I answered simply. My former trainer sighed.

"There is such a thing as respect, you know." Rama said. "You seem to lack quite a bit of it for others."

"I don't respect corrupt authority or cocky asshats." I responded honestly. "That Sol guy sounded like the latter." Rama's fingers pinched the bridge of his nose.

"You don't need to treat every fight here like a fight back home, you know." Rama shook his head. I chose not to respond to that.

"Then there was the glove." He mentioned what happened in the fight against Anora. "You're lucky no one here has quick enough eyes or a selective memory to recognize what that was."

"That… admittedly was my bad." I looked down at the desk. It was a pretty bad slip up.

"Listen," Rama poked a finger at my face as I looked back up. "I don't want to have to cover up for any fuck-ups here, too. I had enough conferences with the Council to convince them you weren't going to do anything _illegal_."

"Nothing was proven," I reminded. "They can't kick me out without substantial evidence."

"Then make sure you don't slip up like that again, Railen." He sighed again. "I can't bail you out every single time. You gotta watch your own back here." He took a deep breath before continuing with, "How are you feeling after that last beating, by the way?"

"I'm good." I shrugged. "I've had worse, Rama, you know that."

"Alright good." Rama said. "You're good to go. Just… be careful, Railen." I got up and left the room. I'd have to take the rest of the first week at Haven trying to work on keeping certain things I do concealed.

Little did I know that there was a certain Wolf Faunus listening from beyond the doorway.

 **A/N: BleachCadelina here updating from the college library. How y'all doing. Hope you enjoyed this chapter; that fight scene took a lot of thinking. As usual, thanks for reading!**

 **Now update on the polls! The winner for the Crossover story I will write is:**

 **RWBY X MYSELF**

 **So, I will start writing this one soon, when I find some free time out of reading and writing for all 5 of my English classes. Hope you all check it out when it comes out!**

 **As usual, thanks for reading. See y'all next chapter!**


	12. Letter to the Readers

Hello, BleachCadelina here.

I just wanted to apologize for the lack of updates to this story. This fic is the most difficult and time-consuming of the ones I'm currently working on, as it has so many assets that don't belong to me and I have to make sure I do your contributions justice in terms of making it all work together.

 **I will continue to write this story. I'm not going to abandon this story. You all deserve that much.**

I just hope when I do update, I'll have a greater reception form both new and old readers. Writers feed off of attention and physical reactions, so please, when you do read any fanfic, at least leave a short review/comment, even if it's a emoticon.

In regards to Volume 4, and the chance that the plot does indeed go into Mistral in depth, I would just like to remind you all that all historical, cultural, geographical ideals of Mistral and Haven in this story are of my creation; I am not sure where they'll go in the canon show, but I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with my story, so keep that in mind.

I will not be making any references to what happens in the show, everything in this story will be based around the characters we all created in a plot that I've made. So, please don't complain if whatever happens doesn't seem parallel to RWBY.

Currently, I'm waaaay behind of course-work in college, and must focus on my studies first. If I am to write anything, it would most likely be for one of the easier, impromptu-based stories (Tendencies and Nobody's Tale in Vale).

Again, I apologize for the long wait for updates. One should be coming one within a month's time.

BleachCadelina, signing off for now! See you all next time!


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